Middle English Dictionary Entry

ascenden v.
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Entry Info

Forms ascenden v. Also assenden.
Etymology L & OF

Definitions (Senses and Subsenses)

1.
(a) To move or proceed upward; ascend, climb, mount, soar; ~ up(ward); board (a ship); light (upon sb.); (b) to ascend (a hill); rise to (the heavens); also, lift up, raise [quot. a1450]; ~ court, come to (court); (c) to mount (the female) for copulation.
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2.
(a) To rise in fortune or moral excellence; (b) to experience elation.
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3.
(a) To rise, be borne upward, well up; ~ up; (b) extend upward; (c) work up.
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4.
Astron. (a) To rise above the horizon; (b) move (toward the zenith).
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5.
Physiol. Of 'humors': rise or go (to the head); of sap: rise.
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6.
Alch. To rise as vapor, vaporize.
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7.
Of a melody: to rise in the scale.
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8.
To increase in amount.
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Supplemental Materials (draft)

  • a1500?Scrope Ribot First Monks (Lamb 192)92/25 : Carmel ys meche for to vndyrstondyn as 'the scyence of cyrcumsycion'. To the whiche scyence he ascendyd [L ascendit].
  • a1500?Scrope Ribot First Monks (Lamb 192)92/33 : Ther was no man that ascendyd [L ascendit] to thys scyence of cyrcumcsyon vnto the tyme that Helye and hyse chyld, that ys to sey the company of the sonys of prophettys.
    • Note: ?New sense: 'accepted, assented to'
    Note: Appears as part of an extended metaphor: ascending Mount Carmel = ascending 'the science of circumcision'.

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