-escentsuff.1. Beginning to be; becoming: juvenescent.2. Characterized by; resembling: opalescent.[French, from Old French, from Latin -?sc?ns, -?scent-, present participle suff. of inchoative verbs in -?scere.]American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.-escent suffix forming adjectives beginning to be, do, show, etc: convalescent; luminescent. [via Old French from Latin -?scent-, stem of present participial suffix of -?scere, ending of inceptive verbs] -escence suffix forming nounsCollins English Dictionary ? Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014-escent a suffix of adjectives borrowed from Latin, where it had an inchoative force (convalescent; recrudescent); also used with the sense ?giving off light” of the kind or in the manner specified ( fluorescent; iridescent). [