declivity

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin dēclīvitās (“a slope”),^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]} formed from dēclīvis (“sloping downward”), from dē- (“down”) and clīvus (“a slope, hill”),^[7][3][5][6] which is traced to Proto-Indo-European *ḱley- (“to lean”),^[8][1][7] and is akin to clīnō (“to bend”).^[6][9] Etymonline, Klein and Skeat take the word through French déclivité,^[8][10][11] and Barnhart allows its influence,^[9] but the OED only compares the French word, which it cites from the Académie's dictionary of 1762.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Downward slope or inclination: Merriam-Webster Unabridged and Barnhart date it to 1612,^[6][9] and Etymonline to the 1610s.^[8] The OED's first record is from before 1613, in Brerewood's Enquiries on languages and religions.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The word first named the slant itself, as a property of a hill or surface.^[2][6] From 1695, in Woodward's Essay on the natural history of the earth, it was also used for the sloping ground.^[2][4] Johnson (1755) defined it as a gradual descent, not precipitous or perpendicular, the opposite of acclivity,^[12] but Merriam-Webster Unabridged also allows a steep or overhanging slope, as of a cliff.^[6]

Timeline

• 1612 – downward slope or inclination.^[6][9] The OED's first record is from before 1613.^[2]
• 1695 – a stretch of ground that slopes downward.^[2][4]

Meanings

Noun

1. A downward slope, especially of a hill or of the ground: The cottage stood at the top of a grassy declivity.^{[7][13][6][2]}
2. Downward inclination from the horizontal; the gradient of a surface, as opposed to acclivity: a road of gentle declivity.^[6][2][4]

Word family

• declivitous

Related words

• acclivity
• proclivity
• decline
• incline
• lean

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
9. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
10. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
11. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
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. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins