Assentation vs ascension

Hear ye! Hear ye! The Court of Proper Word Choice is now in session!

Gentles, I present to you the accused: King Richard’s Faire of Carver, Massachusetts. They stand accused of using the word assentation when they meant ascension.

While I was prepared to charge King Richard’s Faire with “Failure to use a word that exists in the English language,” let us not forget that even an old MRP can learn some new tricks (or, in this case, some new words). According to Merriam Webster, assentation is “ready assent especially when insincere or obsequious.” So it’s a word, it’s just not the right word.

Okay, here’s the deal: When we’re talking about a king taking over the throne, assuming his rightful place as ruling monarch of the land, expecting to wield supreme authority because some watery tart threw a sword at them*, the word we wish to have at the tip of our tongues is ascension (“the act or process of ascending”).

Charges amended. Next!

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*Help! Help! We’re being repressed! You know you want it. Well, here it is.