ascendant (2009-04-11)

Part of Speech: noun

Pronunciation: [æ-'sen-dênt]

Definition: A dominant or rising idea or position; an ancestor

Usage: Today's word is commonly used as a more precise way to express that something is on the rise: "Interest in a national health-care program is currently in the ascendant." However, you may add a bit of proportion to your vocabulary by using "ascendant" as the antonym of "descendant," "My ascendants left the valley early on and settled in the mountains."

Suggested Usage: Today's word may also be spelled correctly as "ascendent." If a descendant is someone who devolves genealogically from you, what is someone from whom you descend? An ancestor, of course, but that word loses the symmetry of the pair: ascendant : descendant.

Etymology: Today's word originated with the Proto-Indo-Europeans 5,000 years ago as *skend- or *skand- "to leap, climb." In Latin it joined with the prefix ad "up (to)" to form ad + scandere "to climb," with the [d] of ad assimilating to the [s] of "scandere." We find the same root with a suffix (*skand-alo-) in Greek as skandalon "a snare, trap." Latin assimilated this word where the meaning shifted to "scandal, slander," at which point English picked it up and today it is "scandal." The same root underlies Sanskrit skandati "he jumps" and Old Irish scendim "I jump."