noun
ascendant
A person from whom someone is descended.
The genealogist traces each ascendant through the family's surviving parish records.
Etymology
The source verb means to climb or rise. Genealogy pictures earlier generations above later ones, so an ascendant is someone reached by moving upward through a line of ancestry.
More examples
- The inheritance record names a living ascendant.
- Several ascendants came from the same village.
- She distinguished a direct ascendant from a collateral relative.
Forms
ascendant · ascendants
Similar words
- ancestor
- The ordinary term for a person in one's direct lineage.
- forebear
- A less technical alternative for an earlier family member.