ascent

Etymology

It is formed from English ascend, on the model of descend and descent.^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]} The OED notes that there was no such word in French: descent itself comes from French descente, formed on descendre after pairs such as vente and vendre, while Latin ascensa had given French ascense and the obsolete ascence.^[3] Ascend is from Latin ascendō (“to climb up, mount”), formed from ad- (“to”) and scandō (“to climb”).^[4][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The act of rising or moving upward: MWU dates this sense to 1581,^[5] the Shorter Oxford to the late 16th century,^[8] while the OED's first quotations are from 1600 (a way of ascending, in Philemon Holland's Livy) and 1611 (an upward slope, in the King James Bible).^[3] Etymonline dates the word to about 1610.^[4]

Semantic evolution

Early uses covered both the movement upward and the way up: Johnson (1755) gave "rise; the act of rising" and "the way by which one ascends".^[9][3] A figurative sense, rise in rank, esteem or social station, appears in Shakespeare's Coriolanus (before 1616).^[3] The act of climbing a mountain, stairs or a river is first recorded in 1753, in a supplement to Chambers's Cyclopaedia.^[3][4] In genealogy and law the word has meant a going back through the generations since 1628, in Coke's Institutes, after descent;^[3][10][11] it is part of a wider pattern, dating from the 13th century, of describing family lines in terms of movement up and down.^[12] The OED also records an isolated use for ascendant in one manuscript of Chaucer's Wife of Bath's Prologue, about 1400.^[3]

Timeline

• 1581 – the act of rising (MWU's first known use).^[5]
• 1600 – a way of ascending.^[3]
• 1611 – a way up; an upward slope.^[3]
• before 1616 – figurative, rise in station or esteem.^[3]
• 1628 – a going back in genealogical succession.^[3]
• 1753 – the act of climbing a mountain, stairs, a river.^[3][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. The act of rising or moving upward; a climb: the first winter ascent of the north face.^[10][5][3]
2. An upward slope or way up; an incline or gradient.^[10][5][3]
3. A rise in social status, rank or reputation.^[5][3]
4. A going back in time or through earlier generations, as in a line of ascent.^[10][5][3]

Word family

• reascent

Related words

• ascend
• ascension
• ascendant
• descent
• descend
• assent
• scan

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
10. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
11. ^ Garner, Bryan A., ed. (2004), Black's Law Dictionary, 8th ed., St. Paul, Minn.: Thomson West
12. ^ Mapping Metaphor with the Historical Thesaurus, University of Glasgow, mappingmetaphor.arts.gla.ac.uk