Ascendants

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. An individual or group from which one descends, such as a parent or ancestor
2. One's lineage that traces back through previous generations
3. Refers to predecessors or forebears who have contributed to a person's heritage

Etymology: The plural "ascendants" is the form of "ascendant," and the noun is the older of the two. Its earliest English sense was astrological: a planet or sign rising above the eastern horizon at the moment of a person's birth, a point thought to shape their fortune. The noun was in use before the adjective, which is the reverse of what one might expect, since the adjective is usually the parent of a noun like this. The word is ultimately from Latin "ascendere," meaning to climb up or rise, built from "ad-" (to, up to) and "scandere" (to climb), a verb that also gave English "scan" in the sense of climbing through verse. The adjective came into Late Middle English through Old French, carrying the sense of rising, ascending, or increasing. The noun's sense of forebears follows a related idea of climbing back up a line of descent toward earlier generations, though the link between the astrological and genealogical senses is not something the sources spell out in detail.

Synonyms: ancestors, forebears