- descent
- c.1300, from Fr. descente, from L. descendre (see descend) on model of attente, vente (the etymological English word from L. would be *descence). Figurative use is from late 14c. Meaning "action of descending," also "a downward slope" is from 1590s. Meaning "act of descending from an ancestor" is from mid-14c. Evolutionary sense is from 1859 in Darwin, though there are uses which suggest essentially the same thing going back to 1630s.