English
escalator
Escalator comes from Latin scala ‘ladder’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *skend- ‘to jump up, ascend’.
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*skend-‘to jump up, ascend’reconstructed
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEscala‘ladder’
- Englishearliest quotation 1957escalator
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Lineage
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*skend-‘to jump up, ascend’reconstructed
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEscala‘ladder’
- Englishearliest quotation 1957escalator
Earliest quotation: 1957, Charles E. Lee, The Changing Face of Transport: “It was the Earls Court installation on the Piccadilly…”
Equivalent to escalate + -or
The story
By genericization from the former trademark Escalator, created by American inventor Charles Seeberger in 1900, from Latin ē- (‘from, out of’) + scala (‘ladder’) + -tor, which forms nouns of agency; see the appendix. Broader usage may be influenced by its derivative escalate, by surface analysis, escalate + -or. For an alternative etymology, see the Online Etymology Dictionary.
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *skend- ‘to jump up, ascend’
scan, ascension, slander, descend, ascendant, skein, scalar, 12 more
through Latin scala ‘ladder’
Today it means
noun Anything that escalates.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *skend- / escalator