English
declension
Declension comes from Middle English declinson ‘an inflectional class’.
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500declinson1‘an inflectional class’
- Englishearliest quotation 1845declension1
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
- 1 Wiktionary, English declension
- Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1845, Lydia Sigourney, Scenes in my Native Land: “Refinement of feeling, intellectual tastes, and a noble hospitality,…”.
Earlier history uncertain. See Wiktionary.
Lineage
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500declinsonWiktionary, English declension‘an inflectional class’
- Englishearliest quotation 1845declensionWiktionary, English declension. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 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.
Sources
Sources: Wiktionary, “declension”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.
Etymograph / Middle English declinson / declension