Etymograph

English

scale

Scale comes from Latin scāla ‘ladder, stairs’, and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *skend- ‘to jump up, ascend’.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*skend-‘to jump up, ascend’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Indo-European, derivedc. 4500–2500 BCE*(s)kn̥d-sleh₂reconstructed
  3. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*skand-slāreconstructed
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEscāla‘ladder; stairs’
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500scale‘ladder’
  6. Englishearliest quotation c. 1608–1609same form

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*skend-‘to jump up, ascend’reconstructed
  2. Proto-Indo-European, derivedc. 4500–2500 BCE*(s)kn̥d-sleh₂reconstructed
  3. Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*skand-slāreconstructed
  4. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEscāla‘ladder; stairs’
  5. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500scale‘ladder’
  6. Englishearliest quotation c. 1608–1609same form

Earliest quotation: c. 1608–1609, William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Coriolanus: “Scaling his present bearing with his past.”

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *skend- ‘to jump up, ascend’

slander, descend, scandalous, skein, 11 more

through Latin scandō ‘to climb’

scan, ascension, ascendant, 6 more

through Latin scāla ‘ladder’

echelon, escalator, scalar, scala, esca, 3 more

Another origin of scale

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*skolH-eh₂reconstructed
  2. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*skalō‘shell, husk’reconstructed
  3. Old Frenchc. 842–1400escale‘shell’uncertain
  4. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500scale‘flake’
  5. Englishtodaysame form

Another origin of scale

  1. Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*skēlōreconstructed
  2. Old Norsec. 800–1350skál‘bowl’
  3. Northern Middle Englishmodernscale
  4. Englishtodaysame form

Today it means

noun A ladder; a series of steps; a means of ascending.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *skend- / scale

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