喜樂美語

核心畫面

You can picture a line that climbs down through time: from an at the top, one step down to a child, another step down to a . A descendant is whoever stands further down that line — the one the climbing-down leads to.

一條「往下走」的線：最上面站著一位很久以前的祖先，往下一階是他的孩子，再往下一階是孫子，時間一階一階往下延伸。des…更多收起一條「往下走」的線：最上面站著一位很久以前的祖先，往下一階是他的孩子，再往下一階是孫子，時間一階一階往下延伸。descendant 就是站在這條線比較下面位置的那個人——不是源頭，而是源頭一路傳下來之後到達的人。這個「往下」的動作是理解整個字的關鍵：東西不是憑空出現的，它從上面某個點沿著一條看得見的路徑降下來。

From the word’s history

From Latin descendere, 'to climb down' (de- 'down' + scandere 'to climb'), via Middle French; the modern noun keeps the picture of moving down a line.

這個字來自拉丁文 descendere，字面就是「往下爬」（de- 往下 + scandere 爬、攀登），中間經由中古法語進入英語。所以 descendant 原本描述的是一個動作：沿著什麼東西往下降。放到家族上，往下降的那條路就是世代——祖先在上、後代在下，一代一代往下爬。也因為這樣，它跟 ascend（往上爬）、descend（下降）是同一個家族的字，那個「上下垂直移動」的感覺一直都在。

Wiktionary (descendant / descend, from Latin dēscendere)

One branch

家族血脈往下傳的人

最貼近字源畫面的用法：那條往下走的線就是血緣，走下來到達的就是後代。

person descended from ancestors · noun · C2

A person related to someone who lived a long time ago, or to a family or group that existed in the past.

後代

原始詞典資料9 筆記錄

以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，原文照列，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。

descendantadj/dɪˈsɛndənt/

  • 1

    Descending; going down.

    • The elevator resumed its descendant trajectory.
    • Eagle descendant, or descending. See DESCENDANT, and Pl. 22, fig. 6. Eagle descendant, displayed. See Pl. 22, fig. 7. Eagle displayed, recursant. See DISPLAYED RECURSANT, and Pl. 22, […]
  • 2

    Descending from a biological ancestor.

    • Power in the kingdom is transferred in a descendant manner.
    • Pitiable sportster, / To choose thy prey so humbly, to seduce / A beggar wench who hath not the high pride / Descendant still from kingly ancestors, / To keep her royal place.
  • 3

    Proceeding from a figurative ancestor or source.

descendantnoun/dɪˈsɛndənt/

  • 1

    One of the progeny of a specified person, at any distance of time or through any number of generations.

    • Meronyms: issue, line, progeny; family; clan
    • The patriarch survived many descendants: five children, a dozen grandchildren, even a great grandchild.
  • 2

    A thing that derives directly from a given precursor or source.

    • This famous medieval manuscript has many descendants.
  • 3

    biologynatural-sciencesA later evolutionary type.

    • Dogs evolved as descendants of early wolves.
  • 4

    human-scienceslinguisticssciencesA language that is descended from another.

    • English and Scots are the descendants of Old English.
  • 5

    human-scienceslinguisticssciencesA word or form in one language that is descended from a counterpart in an ancestor language.

    • The direct descendant of this form is the Slavic aorist: Sb.-Cr. nȍsī, dȍnosī.
  • 6

    astrologyhuman-sciencesmysticismThe intersection of the western (setting) horizon and the ecliptic, its ecliptical longitude; the astrological sign it corresponds to.

資料來源：英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary（CC BY-SA 4.0）。 原文照列，未經改寫。