scion

English

WOTD – 30 April 2009

Alternative forms

Variant spellings

• <s‒vowel>-initial, <n>-terminal:
  • (14^th century):
    • sioun
    • syoun
  • (15^th century):
    • syon
    • siun
  • (16^th century):
    • sien
    • sion
    • syen
    • syon
  • (17^th century):
    • seyon
    • sien
    • syen
• <c>-initial, <n>-terminal:
  • (16^th century):
    • cion
  • (17^th–18^th centuries):
    • cien
    • cion
    • cyen
    • cyon
  • (19^th century–present day):
    • cion (now chiefly in botanical senses)
• [s]- or [t]-terminal:
  • (16 ^th century):
    • science
    • scyence
    • siens
    • sient
  • (17^th century):
    • cions
    • cyence
    • cyens
    • cyons
    • sciance
    • science
    • scient
    • sience
    • siens
    • sient
• <sc>-initial, <n>-terminal:
  • (14^th century):
    • scyon
  • (15^th century):
    • scion
    • scioun
  • (16^th century):
    • scion
  • (17^th century):
    • scien
    • scion
    • scyen
  • (18^th–19 ^th centuries):
    • scion
    • scyon
  • (20^th century–present day):
    • scion (standard spelling)

Mangrove scion in Mono river estuary, Benin

Etymology

From Middle English sion, sioun, syon, scion, cion, from Old French cion, ciun, cyon, sion, from Frankish *kīþō, *kīþ, from Proto-Germanic *kīþô, *kīþą, *kīþaz (“sprout”), from Proto-Indo-European *geye- (“to split open, sprout”), same source as Old English ċīþ (“a young shoot; sprout; germ; sprig”), Old Saxon kīth (“sprout; germ”), Old High German kīdi (“offshoot; sprout; germ”). See also French scion and Picard chion. Doublet of chit.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈsaɪən/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈsaɪ.ən/, /ˈsaɪ.ɑn/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aɪən

Noun

scion (plural scions)

1. A descendant, especially a first-generation descendant of a distinguished family.
   • 1826, [Mary Shelley], chapter I, in The Last Man. […], volume III, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 15:

     No senate seats in council for the dead; no scion of a time honoured dynasty pants to rule over the inhabitants of a charnel house; the general's hand is cold, and the soldier has his untimely grave dug in his native fields, unhonoured, though in youth.

   • 1956, Delano Ames, chapter 9, in Crime out of Mind‎^[1]:

     Rudolf was the bold, bad Baron of traditional melodrama. Irene was young, as pretty as a picture, fresh from a music academy in England. He was the scion of an ancient noble family; she an orphan without money or friends.

   • 1966, Sholem Aleichem, An Early Passover, paperback edition, Clifton Pub. Co., page 24:

     It was said to him that those people were the scions of Zion.

   • 1986, David Leavitt, The Lost Language of Cranes, paperback edition, Penguin, page 72:

     He could show his parents Eliot, scion of Derek Moulthorp, and then how could they say he was throwing his life away?

2. The heir to a throne.
3. A guardian.
4. (botany) A detached shoot or twig containing buds from a woody plant, used in grafting; a shoot or twig in a general sense.
   • 1613, G[ervase] M[arkham], “Of the Setting or Planting of the Cyons or Branches of Most Sorts of Fruit-trees”, in The English Husbandman, […], revised edition, London: […] [Augustine Matthews and John Norton] for Henry Taunton, […], published 1635, →OCLC, 2nd part (Containing the Art of Planting, Grafting, and Gardening, […]), page 132:

     [If] you finde a certaine miſlike or conſumption in the plant, you ſhall immediatly vvith a ſharp knife cut the plant off ſlope-vviſe upvvard, about three fingers from the ground, and ſo let it reſt till the next ſpring, at vvhich time you ſhall behold nevv cyons iſſue from the roote, […]

   • 2020, Hilary Mantel, The Mirror and the Light, Fourth Estate, page 681:

     He used to think that the plums in this country weren’t good enough, and so he has reformed them, grafting scion to rootstock.

Translations

descendant

• Bulgarian: пото́мък (bg) m (potómǎk)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 子孫／子孙 (zh) (zǐsūn)

• Czech: potomek (cs) m
• Dutch: telg (nl)
• Finnish: vesa (fi), perillinen (fi)
• French: descendant (fr) m, descendante (fr) f
• German: Nachkomme (de) m, Nachkommin (de) f, Nachfahr m, Nachfahre (de) m, Nachfahrin (de) f, Abkomme (de) m, Abkommin f, Nachkömmling m, Abkömmling (de) m, Spross (de) m, Sprössling (de) m
• Greek: βλαστός (el) m (vlastós)

  Ancient Greek: ἔρνος n (érnos)

• Hebrew: נֵצֶר (he) m (nétzer)
• Hungarian: leszármazott (hu), sarj (hu)
• Irish: buinneán (ga) m, beangán m, dias f
• Italian: discendente (it) m or f, rampollo (it) m
• Japanese: 子孫 (ja) (しそん, shison)
• Korean: 자손 (ko) (jason)
• Latvian: atvase f, pēcnācējs (lv) f
• Macedonian: потомок m (potomok)
• Malay: keturunan (ms)
• Maori: tuwhanga, mangainga
• Norwegian: etterkommer (no) m
• Polish: latorośl (pl) f
• Portuguese: descendente (pt), rebento (pt) m
• Romanian: moștenitor (ro) m, vlăstar (ro), mlădiță (ro) f
• Russian: пото́мок (ru) m (potómok), о́тпрыск (ru) m (ótprysk)
• Serbo-Croatian: izdanak (sh) m, potomak (sh) m
• Spanish: descendiente (es)
• Swedish: efterkomma (sv) c
• Tagalog: inanak
• Ukrainian: наща́док m (naščádok)
• Welsh: impyn

heir to a throne

• Bulgarian: престолонаследник m (prestolonaslednik)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 繼承人／继承人 (zh) (jìchéngrén)

• Czech: následník (cs) m
• Dutch: opvolger (nl) m, troonopvolger (nl) m
• Estonian: troonipärija
• Finnish: kruununperijä (fi)
• French: héritier d’un trône
• Galician: herdeiro (gl) m
• German: Thronfolgerin (de) f, Thronfolger (de) m, Prinz (de) m, Prinzessin (de) f
• Hungarian: trónörökös (hu)
• Italian: erede al trono m
• Japanese: 御曹司 (ja) (おんぞうし, onzōshi)
• Macedonian: наследник m (naslednik)
• Norwegian: ætling m
• Polish: następca tronu m, następczyni tronu f
• Portuguese: herdeiro (pt) m
• Russian: насле́дник (ru) m (naslédnik), насле́дница (ru) f (naslédnica)
• Scottish Gaelic: oighre m
• Serbo-Croatian: prijestolonasljednik (sh) m, prestolonaslednik m, prijestolonasljednica (sh) f, prestolonaslednica f
• Spanish: heredero (es)
• Swedish: ättling (sv) c
• Turkish: veliaht (tr)
• Welsh: etifedd

(detached) shoot or twig

• Bulgarian: издънка (bg) f (izdǎnka), филиз (bg) m (filiz)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 幼芽 (zh) (yòuyá), 嫩芽 (zh) (nènyá)

• Czech: roub m
• Dutch: scheut (nl)
• Finnish: verso (fi), jaloverso, oksas
• French: scion (fr)
• Galician: gromo (gl) m, xermolo m, rebento (gl) m, inzo (gl) m, fillo (gl) m
• German: Spross (de) m, Sprössling (de) m, Ableger (de) m, Pfropfreis n, Reis (de) n, Steckling (de) m
• Greek: βλαστός (el) m (vlastós)
• Hungarian: oltóág (hu), oltóvessző (hu), ráoltott nemes rész , sarj (hu)
• Irish: beangán m
• Italian: talea (it) f, pollone (it) m
• Japanese: 接ぎ穂 (ja) (つぎほ, tsugiho, つぎぼ, tugibo)
• Latin: tālea f
• Norwegian: podekvist m, skudd n
• Polish: latorośl (pl) f, winorośl (pl) f
• Portuguese: enxerto (pt) m
• Romanian: vlăstar (ro)
• Russian: побе́г (ru) m (pobég), отро́сток (ru) m (otróstok)
• Scottish Gaelic: faillean m
• Serbo-Croatian: izdanak (sh) m
• Spanish: vástago (es), púa (es), hijuelo (es) m
• Swedish: ympkvist c
• Welsh: blaguryn

Trivia

One of three common words ending in -cion, the other two being coercion and suspicion.

Further reading

• “scion”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Anagrams

• Coins, ICONs, Nicos, cions, coins, icons, sonic

French

Etymology

Inherited from Old French cion, ciun, from Frankish *kiþō, from Proto-Germanic *kīþô, *kīþą, from Proto-Indo-European *geye- (“to split open, to sprout”). Spelling influenced by scie (“saw”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sjɔ̃/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Homophones: scions, Sion

Noun

scion m (plural scions)

1. scion (detached twig)

   Synonym: greffon

2. tip of a fishing rod

See also

• (tip of fishing rod): canne

Further reading

• “scion”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Irish

Pronunciation

• (Ulster) IPA^(key): /ʃcɨ̞nˠ/, /ʃcɨ̞n̪ˠ/

Noun

scion f (genitive singular scine, nominative plural sceana)

1. Ulster form of scian (“knife”)

Declension

Declension of scion

Second declension

Bare forms Case Singular Plural Nominative scion sceana Vocative a scion a sceana Genitive scine sceana Dative scion scin (archaic, dialectal) sceana

Forms with the definite article Case Singular Plural Nominative an scion na sceana Genitive na scine na sceana Dative leis an scion leis an scin (archaic, dialectal) don scion don scin (archaic, dialectal) leis na sceana