desinent

English

Etymology

From Latin desinens, present participle of desinere, desitum (“to leave off, cease”); de- + sinere (“to let, allow”).

Adjective

desinent (comparative more desinent, superlative most desinent)

1. (obsolete) Ending; forming an end; lowermost.
   • 1605, Ben Jonson, The Masque of Blackness:

     In front of this sea were placed six tritons, in moving and sprightly actions, their upper parts human, save that their hairs were blue, as partaking of the sea-colour: their desinent parts fish, mounted above their heads, and all varied in disposition.

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “desinent”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)

Anagrams

• dentines, tennised

Latin

Verb

dēsinent

1. third-person plural future active indicative of dēsinō