| 释义 |
descension Now rare.|dɪˈsɛnʃən|
Forms: 4–6 descen-, discen-, dyscen-, -cio(u)n, -cyo(u)n, -sioun, -syon, (6 decension), 6–7 descention, (7 desention), 6– descension.
[a. OF. descension (14th c. in Godef.), ad. L. dēscensiōn-em going down, n. of action from dēscendĕre to descend.]
1. The action of descending; going or coming down, descent (lit. and fig.). Now rare.
a1420Hoccleve De Reg. Princ. 31 For she knewe no lower descensioun, Save onely dethe. 1526Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 261 The blessed descensyon of his soule to Limbo. 1549Coverdale Erasm. Par. Eph. iv. 10 The descencion is before, and the ascencion after. 1597Shakes. 2 Hen. IV, ii. ii. 193 From a god to a bull? a heavy descension! It was Ioves case. 1616R. Carpenter Past. Charge 54 The descension of the holy Ghost vpon the Apostles. 1652Peyton Catastr. Ho. Stuarts (1731) 16 This Bishop maintained Christ's personal Descension into Hell. 1657Austen Fruit Trees i. 101 As a Tree increaseth by ascension of sap, so it would decrease by its descension. 1881Raymond Mining Gloss., Descension-theory, the theory that the material in veins entered from above.
†b. concr. The alleged term for a flight of ‘woodwales’ (woodpeckers). Obs.
a1479in Caxton Hors, Shepe & G. etc. (1822) 30 A discencion of wodewalis.
†2. Descent from an ancestor; lineage. Obs.
1447O. Bokenham Seyntys (Roxb.) 45 For more cler undurstondynge Of this genealogyal descencyoun. 1523Ld. Berners Froiss. I. lxiv. 86 heading, The duke dyed without heyre, wherby the dyscencion fell.
†3. A falling in dignity or importance; a coming down from dignity or high station; condescension.
1609Middleton Shirley Ambass. Wks. 1886 VIII. 314 Whatsoever is dishonourable hath a base descention, and sinks beneath hell. 1642Sir E. Dering Sp. on Relig. 108 Wherefore is this descension from a Parliament to a People? 1692R. L'Estrange Josephus' Antiq. viii. iii. (1733) 215 To treat them with Courtesy and Descension.
†4. Old Chem. = descent 1 d. Obs.
1393Gower Conf. II. 86 Forth with the congelation, Solucion, discention. 1559Morwyng Evonym. Pref., The oyl Capnistrum..that is destilled by descention. 1612Woodall Surg. Mate Wks. (1653) 270 Descension is when the essential juyce dissolved from the matter to be distilled, is subducted and doth descend. 1657in Phys. Dict.
†5. Astron. The setting, or descent below the horizon, of a celestial body. right descension, oblique descension of a celestial body: the degree of the celestial equator, reckoned from the first point of Aries, which sets with it in a right, or oblique, sphere. Obs. (Cf. ascension 3.)
1551Recorde Cast. Knowl. (1556) 209 In the Righte Sphere..the descensions or settinges vnder the Horizont are equall with the Ascensions. 1594Blundevil Exerc. iii. i. xxix. (ed. 7) 337, I will proceed to the ascention and descention of the starres, both right, meane, and oblique. 1658Sir T. Browne Hydriot. v, Our longest sun sets at right descensions. 1726tr. Gregory's Astron. I. 225 There will be no rising or setting at all by the diurnal Motion, and therefore no Ascension or Descension in this Sphere. 1876G. F. Chambers Astron. 912 Ascension, oblique..the converse word is ‘descension’, but it is obsolete.
†6. Astrol. The part of the zodiac in which a planet was supposed to have least influence (opp. to exaltation). Obs.
c1391Chaucer Astrol. ii. §4 That he [the lord of the ascendant] be nat in his descencioun, ne ioigned with no planete in his discencioun. 15..‘Almanak for the Year 1386’, 2 On þe 7 syne fro þe exaltacion of euerilk a planyte, in like degre es made his descensyon. |