descendant
adjective
No English definition recorded for this entry.
L335956 on Wikidata ↗noun
- lineal descendant (blood relative in the direct line of descent) or collateral descendant (relative descended from a brother or sister of an ancestor)
Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /dɪˈsɛndənt/ / /dɪˈsendənt/
adj
Etymology: From Middle English dessendaunte, borrowed from Middle French, from Latin dēscendēns, present participle of descendere, from dē + scandere (“to climb, ascend”).
- Descending; going down.
“The elevator resumed its descendant trajectory.”
“Eagle descendant, or descending. See DESCENDANT, and Pl. 22, fig. 6. Eagle descendant, displayed. See Pl. 22, fig. 7. Eagle displayed, recursant. See DISPLAYED RECURSANT, and Pl. 22, […]”
- Descending from a biological ancestor.
“Power in the kingdom is transferred in a descendant manner.”
“Pitiable sportster, / To choose thy prey so humbly, to seduce / A beggar wench who hath not the high pride / Descendant still from kingly ancestors, / To keep her royal place.”
- Proceeding from a figurative ancestor or source.
noun
Etymology: From Middle English dessendaunte, borrowed from Middle French, from Latin dēscendēns, present participle of descendere, from dē + scandere (“to climb, ascend”).
- One of the progeny of a specified person, at any distance of time or through any number of generations.
“Meronyms: issue, line, progeny; family; clan”
“The patriarch survived many descendants: five children, a dozen grandchildren, even a great grandchild.”
- A thing that derives directly from a given precursor or source.
“This famous medieval manuscript has many descendants.”
- A later evolutionary type.
“Dogs evolved as descendants of early wolves.”
- A language that is descended from another.
“English and Scots are the descendants of Old English.”
- A word or form in one language that is descended from a counterpart in an ancestor language.
“The direct descendant of this form is the Slavic aorist: Sb.-Cr. nȍsī, dȍnosī.”
- The intersection of the western (setting) horizon and the ecliptic, its ecliptical longitude; the astrological sign it corresponds to.