Eggcorn Forum

From the middle of the eighteenth century, the noun “accession” has been used to describe an item acquired by a library, museum, or depository. A verb was built from the noun in the nineteenth century that meant “to acquire for an archive.” More recently, the verb has become a trade term in the library business for acquiring and cataloging a book in the library system. A librarian might say “our staff accessioned thirty books today.”

Yesterday I heard someone talk about “ascensioning” an item. A plausible eggcorn, I think. “Ascension” means “rising up” and books are raised to catalog status through accessioning.

There are a number of examples on the web, including some in the negative form of “de-ascension [for deaccession]:”

Job description: “Ascensioning, barcoding, stamping, and shelving books”

Art dealer description of goods: “…often are the result of collectors reselling a piece or a museum de-ascensioning something in their collection.”

Description of picture of library shelves: “Ascensioned Slave Lake Newspapers”

Picture caption on arms forum: “This Saracen was part of the Morossini collection and de-ascensioned in the early 60’s.”

Description of war club at museum gallery site: “Collected along with other tribal material that was de/ascensioned from an Indian museum in Ontario, Canada.”