escalator

Etymology

It is formed from English escalade + -ator, on the pattern of elevator.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} The Oxford dictionaries take the base as the verb escalade, to climb a wall with ladders,^[2][3][7] while Dictionary.com is less certain of this analysis.^[8] The noun escalade, an assault on a fortification with ladders, is recorded from 1598 and is from French escalade, from Spanish escalada or Italian scalata, from scalare (“to climb by ladder”), ultimately from Latin scāla (“ladder”).^[6][2][5] The word began as a trade name of the Otis Elevator Company in the United States in 1900,^[5][6][9] and most dictionaries mark it as originally or formerly a trademark.^{[10][11][12][2][8]} Hendrickson adds that it gradually lost its exclusive status.^[9] The verb escalate, 1922, is a back-formation from escalator.^[6][13]

Earliest recorded meaning

A moving staircase on the endless-chain principle, whose steps rise or descend continuously to carry passengers between floors: 1900, in the New York Journal of 25 November.^[2] Barnhart and Merriam-Webster also date it to 1900, as American English,^[6][11] and Dictionary.com gives 1895–1900.^[8]

Semantic evolution

Figurative use, for any course that carries someone steadily upward or downward, is recorded from 1927,^[2][5] at first in advertising according to Etymonline.^[5] From 1930 the word was used attributively, especially in escalator clause, a provision in a contract or agreement for raising (occasionally lowering) prices, wages or armaments according to some measure such as the cost of living;^[2][6][11] Merriam-Webster treats this use as an adjective.^[14][11] The derived verb escalate first meant to ride on an escalator, and only later took on the figurative sense of increasing by stages.^[6][13]

Timeline

• 1900 – a moving staircase, originally a trade name.^[2][6][5]
• 1927 – figurative, an upward or downward course.^[2][5]
• 1930 – attributive, of a clause or contract providing for adjustment of prices or wages.^[2][6][11]

Meanings

Noun

1. A moving staircase whose steps are fixed to a continuously circulating belt, carrying people between floors: We took the escalator up to the third floor of the store.^{[15][12][11][2]}
2. A course or means that carries someone upward or downward steadily, usually by stages and without effort.^[11][14][2]
3. Short for escalator clause.^[15][12][14]

Adjective

1. Providing for a periodic upward or downward adjustment, as of wages or prices, according to some index: an escalator agreement tied to inflation.^[14][11][2]

Word family

• escalator clause

Related words

• escalate
• escalade
• elevator
• scale

Usage notes

Hendrickson rejects a long-standing story that the word comes from a French escalateur, which he calls imaginary; he suggests that the story arose because the Otis company first showed its moving stairway at the Paris exposition of 1900.^[9]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
7. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
9. ^ a b c Hendrickson, Robert (2008), The Facts on File Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins, 4th ed., New York: Facts on File
10. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
11. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
12. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
13. ^ a b O'Conner, Patricia T.; Kellerman, Stewart, The Grammarphobia Blog, grammarphobia.com, p. "Escalator clause", 12 October 2009
14. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
15. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin