Ascendancy is a position of rising power over others. Gain the ascendancy, in the ascendancy, political ascendancy.
In sport it means the side that has taken control of a game, and in the ascendancy is the standard commentary phrase. In Irish history the Ascendancy names the Protestant landowning class that held power for two centuries.
1nounascendancyA position of rising power over others.
“The rebels' ascendancy lasted only until the king's army returned.”
ascendancy is a power.
From ascendant, from Latin ascendere, to climb up.
Latin
ascendō — to go up, climb up to
Old French
ascendre
Middle English
ascenden
English
ascend
English, today
ascendancy
Built from
From ascend + ancy or ascendant + cy. The use in ecology is due to Robert Ulanowicz. ascend comes from Middle English ascenden, borrowed from Old French ascendre, from Latin ascendō (“to go up, climb up to”), from ad (“to”) + scandō (“to climb”); see scan. Unrelated to accede other than common ad prefix.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA