Ascendant

Part of speech: noun (n.)

1. Ascent; height; elevation. [R.] Sciences that were then in their highest ascendant. Temple.

2. The horoscope, or that degree of the ecliptic which rises above the horizon at the moment of one's birth; supposed to have a commanding influence on a person's life and fortune.

3. Superiority, or commanding influence; ascendency; as, one man has the ascendant over another. Chievres had acquired over the mind of the young monarch the ascendant not only of a tutor, but of a parent. Robertson.

4. An ancestor, or one who precedes in genealogy or degrees of kindred; a relative in the ascending line; a progenitor; -- opposed to descendant. Ayliffe.