ascension

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English ascensioun,^[2][3] borrowed from Old French ascension and directly borrowed from Latin ascēnsiō (“ascent, a rising”),^{[2][4][5][6][7]} a noun of action from the past participle stem of ascendō (“to climb up, ascend”).^{[8][9][4][10]} Merriam-Webster takes the Christian sense from Late Latin.^[6] The Anglo-Norman ascenciun is recorded from 1194–99, for the Ascension of Christ and its feast day, and also for the Assumption of the Virgin Mary and for an uprising.^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The ascent of Christ into heaven on the fortieth day after the Resurrection: about 1315, in Shoreham's poems,^[8][2] about 1300 in Etymonline.^[9]

Semantic evolution

The religious sense and the astronomical one, the rising of a star or planet, were the first in English, the second from Chaucer (about 1386);^[8][9] Chaucer used the word 16 times, in astronomy and in alchemy.^[3] The alchemical sense, distillation or evaporation, lasted until 1817.^[8][4] Johnson (1755) explained only the astronomical right and oblique ascension.^[12] The general sense, the act of rising, is recorded from 1598, in Chapman's Homer,^[8][9] but here ascension was largely replaced by ascent,^[8] itself formed in the 17th century from ascend after the pattern of descend and descent.^[13] A legal sense, the passing of a title or property to a parent or grandparent, was used from 1528 to 1628,^[8][4] and a figurative one, a rise in station or esteem, from 1617 to 1681.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 1315 – the Ascension of Christ.^[8][2]
• 1366 – Ascension Day, in Mandeville's Travels.^[8]
• c. 1386 – the rising of a celestial body, in Chaucer.^[8][9]
• c. 1386 – distillation, evaporation (obsolete after 1817).^[8]
• 1447 – a way up, an upward slope.^[8]
• 1528 – passing of a title to an ancestor (obsolete after 1628).^[8]
• 1598 – the act of rising in general.^[8][9]
• 1617 – a rise in station or esteem (obsolete after 1681).^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. The act of ascending; a rising: the steady ascension of the weather balloon.^[6][14][8]
2. Often Ascension: the ascent of Jesus into heaven forty days after his resurrection.^[6][14][8]
3. Ascension: Ascension Day, the feast that marks it.^[6][8]
4. In astronomy, the rising of a star or other celestial body; see right ascension.^[14][8][4]
5. (archaic) A way up; an upward slope.^[8][4]
6. (obsolete, 1386–1817) Distillation or evaporation.^[6][8][4]

Word family

• ascensional
• right ascension

Related words

• ascend
• descension
• ascent
• descend
• condescension

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
4. ^ a b c d e f g Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
10. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
11. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
12. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
13. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
14. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins