descendant, -ent, a. and n.
(dɪˈsɛndənt)
Also 6 discendant.
[a. F. descendant (13th c. in Littré), pr. pple. of descendre to descend, used as adj. and n. Also spelt -ent after L. dēscendent-em: see -ant, -ent.
Johnson gives Descendant n., Descendent adj., and remarks ‘It seems to be established that the substantive should derive the termination from the French, and the adjective from the Latin’. In the n. sense 1, and the related sense 2 of the adj. -ant is now always used; in the other senses of both, -ent is perhaps preferable, but these are either obsolete or so rarely used as to make the distinction one of little practical moment.]
A. adj.
1. lit. Descending; coming or going down. rare.
| 1644 Digby Nat. Bodies i. (1645) 99 The aire..maketh one descendent body together with the dish. 1658 R. White tr. Digby's Powd. Symp. (1660) 59 The ascending water becoming more heavy then the descendant on the other side. 1691 Ray Creation (J.), This descendent juice is that which principally nourishes both fruit and plant. 1839 Bailey Festus (1848) 59/2 The descendent city of the skies. |
† b. Astron. (Cf. descend v. 1 d.) Obs.
| 1594 Blundevil Exerc. iii. i. xi. (ed. 7) 296 The Descendent [Signs] are these, Cancer, Leo, [etc.]. 1631 Widdowes Nat. Philos. 14 The Ascendant [node] is higher where {moonlq}..doth come nearest unto us. The descendant, when the {moonlq} is removing from us. 1690 Leybourn Curs. Math. 818 The Descendent Node of the Moon. |
c. Her. Descending towards the base of the shield.
| 1572 J. Bossewell Armorie ii. 42 Their tayles..descendante, percussed, and contercoloured. |
2. Descending or originating from an ancestor; also fig. (See descend v. 8.)
| 1594 Parsons Confer. Success. ii. viii. 184 Of the right discendant line of K. John. a 1641 Bp. R. Montagu Acts & Mon. (1642) 26 His Son..descendent and extracted from his loines. 1725 Pope Odyssey ii. 313 Were not wise sons descendent [ed. 1758 descendant] of the wise. 1857 Ruskin Pol. Econ. Art ii. (1868) 112 The best and greatest of descendant souls. |
B. n.
1. One who ‘descends’ or is descended from an ancestor (see descend v. 8); issue, offspring (in any degree near or remote): a. of persons.
| 1600 E. Blount tr. Conestaggio 85 All the descendents of Beatrice. 1623 in Rushw. Hist. Coll. (1659) I. 86 Their Servants, Children, and Descendens. a 1729 S. Clarke On the Evidences Prop. 14 (R.) Abraham's descendents according to the flesh. 1794 Southey Poems, Retrospect, The last descendant of his race. 1871 Morley Voltaire (1886) 54 A descendant of the conquering Franks. 1875 Poste Gaius 265 From the rules of caducity ascendants and descendants of the testator to the third degree were excepted. |
b. of animals and plants.
| 1866 Darwin Orig. Spec. Hist. Sk. 13 The existing forms of life are the descendants by true generation of pre-existing forms. 1867 H. Spencer Princ. Biol. II. vi. 431 The descendants of a wheat plant..will have become numerous. |
c. fig. and transf.
| 1869 Farrar Fam. Speech ii. (1873) 74 The Gothic language is absolutely dead..it has left no direct descendants. 1871 A. R. Wallace Nat. Select. viii. 295 Are not improved Steam Engines or Clocks the lineal descendants of some existing Steam Engine or Clock? 1894 Chr. World 23 Aug. 629/2 The descendants of the Puritans—the Nonconformists of to-day. |
† 2. Astron. The part of the heavens which at any moment is descending below the horizon (opposite to the ascendant). Obs.
| 1690 Leybourn Curs. Math. 385 The Descendent, or Angle of the West, or the Cuspis of the Seventh House. |
† 3. Typogr. A letter that descends below the line; = descender2 b. (Cf. ascendant B. 7.)
| 1676 Moxon Print Lett. 6 Descendents are those that stand lower than the Foot–line: such as are g, p, q, y. |