- ascend (v.)
- late 14c., from Latin ascendere "to climb up, mount, ascend," figuratively "to rise, reach," from ad- "to" (see ad-) + scandere "to climb" (see scan (v.)). Also in 15c. used with a sense "to mount (a female) for copulation." Related: Ascended; ascending. An Old English word for it was stigan.
