different between immerse vs descend

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin immersus, from immerg?, from in + merg?.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??m??(?)s/
• Rhymes: -??(?)s

Verb

immerse (third-person singular simple present immerses, present participle immersing, simple past and past participle immersed)

1. (transitive) To place within a fluid (generally a liquid, but also a gas).
   • 1883, The Electrical Journal, page 501:

     ... the two plates of platinum immersed in oxygen and hydrogen gases

   • 1841, William Rhind, A history of the vegetable kingdom, page 110:

     Even after the process of germination has taken place, if the young plant be immersed in an atmosphere of either of those gases [hydrogen and nitrogen], vegetation and life will immediately cease.

   • 1955, George Shortley, Dudley Williams, Elements of Physics for Students of Science and Engineering

     The buoyant force of the atmospheric air on solids and liquids immersed in it is for most purposes negligible compared to the weight of solid or liquid, ...

   Archimedes determined the volume of objects by immersing them in water.

2. (transitive) To involve or engage deeply.

   The sculptor immersed himself in anatomic studies.

3. (transitive, mathematics) To map into an immersion.
   • 2002, Kari Jormakka, Flying Dutchmen: Motion in Architecture (page 40)

     Thus, in mathematical terms a Klein bottle cannot be "embedded" but only "immersed" in three dimensions as an embedding has no self-intersections but an immersion may have them.

Synonyms

• submerge

Derived terms

• immersion
• immersive

Translations

Adjective

immerse (comparative more immerse, superlative most immerse)

1. (obsolete) Immersed; buried; sunk.

Italian

Adjective

immerse f pl

1. feminine plural of immerso

Verb

immerse

1. third-person singular past historic of immergere
2. feminine plural past participle of immergere

Latin

Participle

immerse

1. vocative masculine singular of immersus

English

Etymology

From Middle English decenden, borrowed from Old French descendre, from Latin descendere, past participle descensus (“to come down, go down, fall, sink”), from de- (“down”) + scandere (“to climb”). See scan, scandent. Compare ascend, condescend, transcend.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /d??s?nd/
• Hyphenation (US): de?scend; (UK): des?cend
• Rhymes: -?nd

Verb

descend (third-person singular simple present descends, present participle descending, simple past and past participle descended)

1. (intransitive) To pass from a higher to a lower place; to move downwards; to come or go down in any way, for example by falling, flowing, walking, climbing etc.
   • 2002, John Griesemer, No One Thinks of Greenland: A Novel

     Rudy felt a gust of fear rise in his chest, and he looked again in the mirror, but the hangar and stable were now beyond the rise, out of sight, he was descending so fast.

   • 1655, Thomas Fuller, The History of the University of Cambridge: From the Conquest to the Year 1634

   We will here descend to matters of later date.

   • 1611, King James Version, Matthew vii. 25.

   The rain descended, and the floods came.

2. (intransitive, poetic) To enter mentally; to retire.

   • [He] with holiest meditations fed, Into himself descended.

3. (intransitive, with on or upon) To make an attack, or incursion, as if from a vantage ground; to come suddenly and with violence.
   • 2013, Deltrice Alfred Grossmith, Arctic Warriors: A Personal Account of Convoy PQ18

     more aircraft descending on us than had done during previous visits from the snoopers in their usual ones and twos.

   • 1726, Alexander Pope, Odyssey

   And on the suitors let thy wrath descend.

4. (intransitive) To come down to a lower, less fortunate, humbler, less virtuous, or worse, state or rank; to lower or abase oneself
   • August 25, 1759, Samuel Johnson, The Idler No. 71

     He […] began to descend to familiar questions, endeavouring to accommodate his discourse to the grossness of rustic understandings.

5. (intransitive) To pass from the more general or important to the specific or less important matters to be considered.
6. (intransitive) To come down, as from a source, original, or stock
7. to be derived (from)
8. to proceed by generation or by transmission; to happen by inheritance.

9. (intransitive, astronomy) To move toward the south, or to the southward.
10. (intransitive, music) To fall in pitch; to pass from a higher to a lower tone.
11. (transitive) To go down upon or along; to pass from a higher to a lower part of

Synonyms

• go down

Antonyms

• ascend
• go up

Derived terms

• descender

Related terms

• descent

Translations

Anagrams

• scended

French

Verb

descend

1. third-person singular present indicative of descendre