English
declension
Declension comes from Middle English declinson ‘an inflectional class’.
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500declinson‘an inflectional class’
- Englishearliest quotation 1845declension
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Earlier history uncertain.
Lineage
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500declinson‘an inflectional class’
- Englishearliest quotation 1845declension
Earliest quotation: 1845, Lydia Sigourney, Scenes in my Native Land: “Refinement of feeling, intellectual tastes, and a noble hospitality,…”
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *ḱel- ‘to incline’
hell, color, cell, hall, hole, ceiling, hull, holder, helmet, hollow, halt, helm, uphold, conceal, occult, holden, sari, clandestine, sala, cilia, tricolour, holing, haugh, seel, halberd, hele, 37 more
through Proto-Indo-European *ḱley-
law, low, climate, lean, ladder, lid, climax, eyelid, inclination, clinician, cline, proclivity, 25 more
through Latin clīnō ‘to bend, to incline’
through Latin dēclīnō ‘to bend, deviate, turn aside/away, deflect’
through Latin dēclīnātiō ‘declination’
Today it means
noun A falling off, decay or descent.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Middle English declinson / declension