descendant

From Middle English dessendaunte, borrowed from Middle French, from Latin dēscendēns, present participle of descendere, from dē + scandere (“to climb, ascend”).

• (UK) IPA^(key): /dɪˈsɛndənt/

• Audio (US)

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descendant (not comparable)

1. descending from a biological ancestor.
2. proceeding from a figurative ancestor or source.

The adjective may be spelled either with ant or ent as the final syllable (see descendent). The noun may be spelled only with ant.

• descendent

• ascendant, ascendent, ascending

• descendancy

descendant (plural descendants)

1. (literally) One who is the progeny of a specified person, at any distance of time or through any number of generations.

   The patriarch survived many descendants: five children, a dozen grandchildren, even a great grandchild.

2. (figuratively) A thing that derives directly from a given precursor or source.

   This famous medieval manuscript has many descendants.

3. (biology) A later evolutionary type.

   Dogs evolved as descendants of early wolves.

4. (linguistics) A language that is descended from another.

   English and Scots are the descendants of Old English.

5. (linguistics) A word or form in one language that is descended from a counterpart in an ancestor language.
   • 1993, Jens Elmegård Rasmussen, “The Slavic i-verbs with an excursus on the Indo-European ē-verbs”, in Bela Brogyanyi and Reiner Lipp (editors), Comparative-Historical Linguistics, John Benjamins Publishing, →ISBN, page 479:

     The direct descendant of this form is the Slavic aorist: Sb.-Cr. nȍsī, dȍnosī.

The adjective may be spelled either with ant or ent as the final syllable (see descendent). The noun may be spelled only with ant.

• (offspring): afterbear, offspring, scion, and see Thesaurus:child & relative

• ascendant
• ancestor
• forebear

• direct descendant
• indirect descendant

• offspring
• offshoot
• progeny

Borrowed from Latin dēscendēns, dēscendēntem, the present participle of descendere, itself from dē + scandere (“climb, ascend”).

• IPA^(key): /de.sɑ̃.dɑ̃/

• audio

  (file)

descendant

1. present participle of descendre

descendant m (plural descendants, feminine descendante)

1. A descendant; one who is the progeny of someone at any distance of time; e.g. a child; a grandchild, etc.

• ancêtre m
• ascendant m

descendant (feminine singular descendante, masculine plural descendants, feminine plural descendantes)

1. (which is) descending.

• ascendant
• montant

• descendance
• descendre

• “descendant” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

dēscendant

1. third-person plural present active subjunctive of dēscendō