ascendant

Meanings

1. Moving upward; ascending, rising.
2. Controlling, dominant, surpassing.
3. In an eastern direction rising just above the horizon.
4. Rising towards the zenith.
5. Of a part of an organism: synonym of ascending (“leading or sloping upwards”).
6. Synonym of ascending (“of or pertaining to one's ancestors”).

1. The degree of the zodiac or point of the ecliptic which rises in an eastern direction above the horizon at a particular moment (especially the moment of a person's birth), which is supposed to have a commanding influence on a person's fortune and life; a horoscope.
2. Chiefly in in the ascendant: an act of ascending or rising.
3. Synonym of ascendancy (“commanding influence; dominant control; superiority, supremacy”).
4. An ancestor.
5. A person who ascends or goes up; specifically (usually followed by to), a person who ascends to a throne or assumes some other position of power.
6. Something which is higher than the things around it; a peak, a summit; specifically (typography), synonym of ascender (“the portion of a lowercase letter that extends above the midline”).
7. Something which leads or slopes upwards, such as a flight of stairs or an upward incline.
8. A person who supports a policy of ecclesiastical or national supremacy.

Etymology

PIE word *h₂éd The adjective is derived from Late Middle English ascendent (“ascending, rising; increasing in quantity; (astronomy) rising above the horizon”) [and other forms], borrowed from Old French ascendant, from Latin ascendentem, the accusative singular of ascendēns (“ascending, rising”), the present participle of ascendō, adscendō (“to climb up, go up, move upwards; to rise; to spring up”), from ad- (prefix meaning ‘(up) to’) + scandō (“to ascend, climb, mount; to clamber”) (from Proto-Indo-European *skend- (“to climb, scale; to dart; to jump; to scan (poetry)”)). The English word is analysable as ascend (verb) + -ant (suffix forming adjectives from verbs with the sense of ‘doing [the verbal actions]’). The noun is probably derived from the adjective, though it is attested earlier than the latter.