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Origin and history of descend

descend(v.)

c. 1300, descenden, "move or pass from a higher to a lower place," from Old French descendre (10c.) "descend, dismount; fall into; originate in" and directly from Latin descendere "come down, descend, sink," from de "down" (see de-) + scandere "to climb," from PIE root *skand- "jump" (see scale (v.1)).

The sense of "originate, proceed from a source or original" is late 14c. in English, as is that of "have a downward slope." The meaning "come down in a hostile manner, invade" is attested from early 15c. Related: Descended; descending.

also from c. 1300

Entries linking to descend

scale(v.1)

"to climb (a wall) by or as by a ladder; attack with scaling ladders," late 14c., scalen, from Latin scala "ladder, flight of stairs," from *scansla, from stem of scandere "to climb, rise, mount," which is reconstructed to be from PIE *skand- "to spring, leap, climb" (source also of Sanskrit skandati "hastens, leaps, jumps;" Greek skandalon "stumbling block;" Middle Irish sescaind "he sprang, jumped," sceinm "a bound, jump").

Middle English scale (n.) "ladder used in sieges," is attested c. 1400, from the Latin noun. The verb in general and figurative use (of mountains, heights of pleasure, etc.) is attested by 16c. Related: Scaled; scaling.

descendant

mid-15c. (adj.) "extending downward;" c. 1600 (n.) "an individual proceeding from an ancestor in any degree," from French descendant (13c.), present participle of descendre "to come down" (see descend).

Despite a tendency to use descendent for the adjective and descendant for the noun, descendant seems to be prevailing in all uses and appears 5 times more often than its rival in books printed since 1900. Compare dependant. In astrology, "the western horizon or cusp of the seventh house," 1680s.

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descent
c. 1300, "genealogical extraction from an original or progenitor," from Old French descente "descent, descendance, lineage," formed from descendre "to come down" (see descend) on analogy of French nouns such as attente from attendre "to expect," vente "sale" from vendre "to sell,
rise
Middle English risen, from Old English risan "to rise from sleep, get out of bed; stand up, rise to one's feet; get up from table; rise together; be fit, be proper" (typically gerisan, arisan; a class I strong verb; past tense ras, past participle risen), from Proto-Germanic *us-
derive
late 14c., "descend from," from Old French deriver "to flow, pour out; derive, originate," from Latin derivare "to lead or draw off (a stream of water) from its source" (in Late Latin also "to derive"), from phrase de rivo (de "from" + rivus "stream," from PIE root *rei- "to run,
valance
uncertain origin, probably from Anglo-French *valaunce, valence, from valer "go down, let down," variant of Old French avaler "descend...
avalanche
Romansch (Swiss) avalantze "descent," altered (by metathesis of -l- and -v-, probably influenced by Old French avaler "to descend...
ground
In the sense "establish firmly" Old English had grundweallian, grundstaðelian; also gryndan "descend," gegryndan "to found...
light
"to touch down," as a bird from flight, "get down or descend," as a person from horseback, from Old English lihtan "to alight...
deign
c. 1300, deinen, "think worthy, think well of, regard as suited to one's dignity," from Old French deignier (Modern French daigner) and directly from Latin dignari "to deem worthy or fit" (source of Italian degnare, Spanish deñar), from dignus "worthy," from PIE root *dek- "to ta
alight
"to descend (from horseback, etc.), dismount," Middle English alighten, from Old English alihtan "alight," originally "to lighten, take off, take away," from a- "down, aside" (see a- (1)) + lihtan "get off, make light" (see light (v.)). The notion is of getting down off a horse o
prod
1530s, "to poke with a stick," of uncertain origin; possibly [Barnhart, Century Dictionary] a variant of brod, from Middle English brodden "to goad," from Old Norse broddr "shaft, spike" (see brad), or perhaps imitative [OED]. Compare dialectal prog "pointed instrument for poking

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