escapement

Etymology

It is formed from English escape + -ment,^[2][3][4] after French échappement, used of the clock mechanism from 1716,^[5][2][6][7] which is from échapper (“to escape”).^[6][7] Dictionary.com calls it a calque of the French word.^[3] Merriam-Webster Unabridged takes it as an alteration of the earlier scapement, influenced by the French.^[8] Etymonline records scapement from 1755,^[5] while the OED dates scapement only from 1784 and calls it a shortened form of escapement.^[2][6] Escape itself is from Anglo-Norman escaper, from Vulgar Latin *excappō (“to get out of one's cape”).^[9][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The mechanism of a watch or clock that checks and releases the train of wheels at regular intervals: 1779, in Rees's edition of Chambers's Cyclopaedia.^[2][5] Etymonline and Merriam-Webster Unabridged date the device to 1755, Etymonline in the form scapement,^[5][8] and Dictionary.com dates the word to 1730–40.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The OED notes that the word appeared first in the clockmaking sense, after French,^[2] and the general senses grew from escape afterwards: the action of escaping (1824, in Thomas Hood, now rare) and a means of escape or outlet (1856, in Froude).^[2][6] The idea of a mechanism that lets something move on step by step was applied to the typewriter, whose escapement moves the carriage one space after each key (1881),^[2][6] and to the piano, where it lets the hammer fall back after striking the string (1896).^[2][6][10]

Timeline

• 1779 – the mechanism in a watch or clock that alternately checks and releases the wheels.^[2][5]
• 1824 – the action of escaping.^[2]
• 1830 – attributive, as in escapement wheel.^[2]
• 1856 – a means of escape; an outlet.^[2]
• 1881 – the mechanism that moves a typewriter carriage.^[2]
• 1896 – the mechanism in a piano that lets the hammer fall back from the string.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. (horology) The mechanism in a clock or watch, usually an escape wheel and an anchor, that checks and releases the wheels at regular intervals and passes impulses to the pendulum or balance.^{[10][8][9][2]}
2. A similar mechanism that regulates movement, as the one that moves a typewriter carriage one space at a time.^[10][9][2]
3. In a piano, the mechanism that lets the hammer fall back after striking the string, so that it can vibrate.^[10][6][2]
4. The number of fish allowed to escape capture and spawn.^[8]
5. An overflow channel.^[10]
6. (rare) The act of escaping.^[10][2][6]
7. (archaic) A means of escape; an outlet or vent.^[8][6][2]

Word family

• anchor escapement
• lever escapement

Related words

• escape
• scapement

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
4. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
5. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
10. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins