ascendancy

Etymology

It is formed from English ascendant + -ancy,^[2][3][4] or, as Etymonline and Klein analyse it, from ascendant and -cy.^[5][6] The adjective and noun ascendant are from Latin ascendēns, the present participle of ascendō (“to mount, go up”), the source of ascend.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Dominant influence or control: Merriam-Webster Unabridged dates the word to 1641,^[7] Etymonline to 1712, and the OED, whose entry is not fully revised, has its first record in 1744.^[5][2]

Semantic evolution

The word grew out of astrology: the ascendant was the point of the zodiac rising on the eastern horizon at the moment of birth, and the planet ruling it was believed to have the strongest influence on a person's life; hence in the ascendant meant "ruling, dominant" from the 1670s.^[5] Ascendancy is the state of being in the ascendant.^[2][5] Johnson (1755) entered it in the spelling ascendency, defined it as influence or power.^[8] In Irish history the Ascendancy or Protestant Ascendancy was the domination of Ireland by the Anglo-Irish Protestant minority, especially in the 18th and 19th centuries, and that ruling class itself, a use from the late 18th century.^[3]

Timeline

• 1641 – dominant influence or control.^[7] Etymonline dates it to 1712 and the OED to 1744.^[5][2]
• late 18th century – the Ascendancy, the Anglo-Irish Protestant ruling class.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. Dominant power or influence; supremacy or control over others: The reformers slowly gained the ascendancy in the council.^[9][7][2][3]
2. (historical) Usually the Ascendancy: the domination of Ireland by the Anglo-Irish Protestant minority, especially in the 18th and 19th centuries; also that ruling class.^[3]

Word family

• ascendance

Related words

• ascendant
• ascend

Usage notes

The spellings ascendency, ascendance and ascendence are also used;^[9][7][3] Chambers calls the last two rare.^[10]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
5. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
9. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
10. ^ The Chambers Dictionary (2014), 13th ed., Edinburgh: Chambers