Career Ascension or Career Advancement?

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, Grant. This is Brendan Martin here. How are you doing?

All right. Where are you calling from, Brendan?

I’m calling from Lewis, Delaware.

Lewis, Delaware. Well, welcome to the show.

So I am a recent graduate of Northern Arizona University. And with this freshly minted degree, you know, I decided to get into the job market. So as such, I’ve been going on a lot of interviews, applying for a lot of positions. And I noticed that a lot of these interviews, they kind of, you know, in the corporate world, they kind of are handled in a similar fashion. So a lot of the same questions, a lot of the same answers, you know, one of which being, you know, they kind of want to gauge the individual’s ambition and sort of like their lack of complacency, if you will. So one of the questions that they always ask is, you know, where do you see yourself in a few years? Or, you know, tell us about something that motivates you. To which, you know, I usually respond something like, you know, I’m very concerned with career trajectory, or, you know, upward mobility, or a phrase I’ve been using was a path to ascension.

So for each of these interviews, I usually prepare a little script, kind of like a dossier that I can reference while I’m on the phone. So I was writing down Path to Ascension the other day. And, you know, I spelled it correctly or so I thought, and it occurred to me that ascension was spelled differently than it sounded. To me, you know, I was like, why is it not T-I-O-N and why is it spelled S-I-O-N? And I thought to myself, who better than to answer such a question than my friends from the West Coast?

So by Path to Ascension, you mean advancing your career by moving up the ladder?

Or advancing to godhood, maybe.

No, no.

Well, you know, while I do aspire to do both at some point, right now I’m kind of, I’m more or less focused on my career, you know?

Okay.

Yeah, the reason that Grant and I are scratching our heads a little bit is that when the word ascension came into English, it specifically referred to the ascension of Christ. You know, the story of Christ going up from earth into heaven on the 40th day after the resurrection. And the reason that it has that S is that it comes from Latin ascensionem, which means a going up. It’s related to words like ascend. And it first appears, as I said, in English in the 14th century. And it was borrowed into English directly from Latin in that religious sense.

And so today you’ll still hear people talking about the ascension of Christ or maybe if they’re talking about royalty, an earthly monarch, they might talk about that person’s ascension to the throne. But I’m not sure it’s used so much in a career sense. And it sounded like you were also interested in not just the appropriateness for a job hunt, but also why S-I-O-N versus T-I-O-N at the end.

Yeah, yeah. That was the initial, I wouldn’t say concern, but that was the initial thing that piqued my interest.

Well, yeah. As I said, it was borrowed directly into English from the Latin ascensionim. More often today, the word that replaces it is the word ascent. And you may wonder why the word ascent has that T in it rather than an S. And that’s because it showed up in the 1600s, and it was formed by analogy with another word that had already been floating around for 300 years, which was descent. And the reason that that word has the T is that it didn’t come directly from Latin into English. It passed through Old French, where descent meant your genealogical lineage, you know, what you descended from.

So that’s why those have those T’s. But in terms of Ascentian rather than Ascension, that’s because it was borrowed whole from the Latin word that did have an S in it.

Gotcha. So descent is just a little more well-traveled in its path to current usage.

That’s a good way to put it.

Yeah, yeah. We don’t want that for your career, for sure.

Oh, well, you know, I appreciate that. I appreciate that. Advancement might be the better word there.

It will be. Okay, cool. Advancement.

So this is going in the script now. It’s going on the docuette.

Well, good luck, Brendan, in the new job, and congratulations. That’s a big moment in anyone’s life.

Hey, thanks a lot. You know, I appreciate you taking the time out to hear, to take the call. You know, and I’ve been a longtime listener. You guys are the greatest, and, you know, can’t wait to hear what else you guys come up with.

Same goes for you, too.

Kick butt.

Thank you very much.

You sound like somebody to watch.

All right.

Hey, well, you know, we’ll see.

All right.

Bye-bye.

Thanks, Brendan.

All right, thanks, guys.

Yeah, see you.

We’d love to hear the language that you’re using at your workplace, whether you’re new or been there 40 years. What are the little dilemmas that you have about putting something together, whether it’s a presentation for the whole company or just something that you put together for yourself? You have these little questions, and we have answers. And, hey, let’s talk about it. 877-929-9673 or email words@waywordradio.org.