Etymologically
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descendo

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Pronunciation

  • IPA (Classical): [deːsˈkɛn.doː][1]
  • IPA (Ecclesiastical): [deʃˈʃɛn.do][1]

Forms

dēscendō (present infinitive dēscendere, perfect active dēscendī, supine dēscēnsum); third conjugation[1] Valerius Antias and Laberius have a reduplicated perfect dēscendidī.[2][3] Inscriptions also have discendō and the perfect dēscīdī.[2]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin dē- (“down”) + scandō (“to climb”).[2][4][1] De Vaan derives scandō from Proto-Italic *skand-e/o- (“to ascend”), from Proto-Indo-European *skend- (“to jump up, ascend”), cognate with Sanskrit स्कन्दति (skándati, “leaps”) and Old Irish sceinnid (“jumps”).[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Plautus has quom dēscendat inde, “when he comes down from there”.[2][6]

Semantic evolution

Dēscendere is “to come or go down, descend”, of things “to sink, settle”, and of heavenly bodies “to set”.[2][3][1] An army descends to the plain to fight (Caesar), and one goes down to the forum on business, or in causam “takes sides”.[2] It is used of things that hang or slope downwards, and of what goes deep, “to penetrate” (Virgil of fire spreading through the ships), also into the mind.[2][1]

Figuratively it is “to stoop, lower oneself” to something, and “to resort to” stronger measures.[2][1] Of the voice it is “to drop in pitch”, and of quantities and qualities “to decrease, decline”; of time and other scales, “to come down”.[2][1] Church Latin glosses it “to descend, come or go down”.[7] English descend comes from it, partly through Old French, about 1300.[8]

Timeline

  • c. 250–184 BC – Plautus: quom dēscendat inde.[2][6]
  • 234–149 BC – Cato uses it of a cutting sinking into the ground.[2][6]
  • c. 50 BC – Caesar uses it of armies coming down to fight.[2][6]
  • 70–19 BC – Virgil uses it of fire penetrating.[2][6]
  • c. 1300 – English descend.[8]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To come or go down, descend;[2][3][1][7] to set (of heavenly bodies).[2]
  2. To come down to battle (of an army); to enter a contest.[2]
  3. To go down (to the forum, to business);[2] in causam dēscendere: to take sides.[2]
  4. To hang down; to slope down.[2][1]
  5. To penetrate, sink in.[2][1]
  6. To stoop, lower oneself; to resort (to).[2][1]
  7. To drop (in pitch).[2][1]
  8. To decrease, decline; to come down (in time).[2]

Word family

  • condēscendō
  • dēscēnsiō
  • dēscēnsōrius
  • dēscēnsus

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  4. ^ Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
  5. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  6. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
  7. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
  8. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com