escalera

Forms

escalera f (plural escaleras)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish escalera, inherited from Late Latin scālāria (“stairs”), the neuter plural of scālāre or scālārium, both found in inscriptions; the plural is used by Vitruvius.^[2][3][4][1] These are derived from scālae (“ladder, steps”), which Latin used mostly in the plural; the singular scāla is rare and Quintilian condemned it as a barbarism.^[5][1][6] The plural noun is formed from scandō (“to climb”) with the suffix -la, from a form *skand-slā, and Wiktionary traces it to *skend- (“to jump, climb”).^[6][1]

Corominas rejects Jaberg's view that the word is recent: it passed early into Mozarabic escaláira and into the Arabic of Morocco, and reaches Béarn as escalére.^[2] Several Romance languages needed to tell the ladder from the staircase of a building;^[2] Spanish kept escala for the ladder, while Occitan used Old Occitan escalier, which gave French escalier in the 16th century.^[2] The same Latin word is Portuguese escaleira, recorded from the 13th century, and Asturian escalera.^[7][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The CDH's first record is the Fazienda de Ultra Mar (c. 1200, in a 13th-century copy), in God's command from Exodus: Non subas con escalera sobre myo altar “do not go up to my altar by steps”.^[8] Corominas gives Berceo, of 1220–1250, who uses it of a portable ladder.^[2][3][9] In the Lapidario of Alfonso X deep mines can be entered only con escaleras “with ladders”.^[10]

Semantic evolution

The Lucidario already uses escalera for a fixed flight of steps between floors.^[9] Covarrubias in 1611 says the word usually meant the fixed staircase and sometimes the ladder leaned against a wall, and calls a rope ladder used by thieves escalera de manos.^[11] Autoridades describes the staircase of a house first and the portable ladder second.^[12] The Academy's dictionary of 1884 records the spiral staircase, escalera de caracol, and an old surgical device for setting dislocated bones.^[13]

Today the word also names part of a cart, a run of cards of consecutive value, and the steps a bad haircut leaves in the hair.^[4] In Colombia it is a rural bus with open sides, and in Costa Rica a tall, thin person.^[14]

Timeline

• c. 1200 – the Fazienda de Ultra Mar uses escalera of steps up to an altar.^[8]
• 1220–1250 – Berceo, the first record in Corominas.^[3][9]
• c. 1250 – the Aragonese Vidal Mayor uses the word of a ladder leaned against a wall.^[8]
• 1250–1279 – the Lapidario of Alfonso X.^[10]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives escala o escalera as Latin scalae.^[5]
• 1536 – first record from the Americas, in Mexico City.^[15]
• 1611 – Covarrubias distinguishes the fixed staircase and the rope ladder.^[11]
• 1884 – the Academy records escalera de caracol.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. stairs, a staircase: a set of steps joining two levels of a building or of the ground; also used in the plural: Subimos por la escalera porque el ascensor no funcionaba.^[4][1]
2. A ladder.^[4][1]
3. The frame of a cart, formed by its side rails, crossbars and shaft, shaped like a ladder.^[4]
4. A short ladder-like frame that extends the back of a cart or wagon.^[4]
5. (card games) A run of cards of consecutive value; in poker, a straight.^[4][1]
6. A step or uneven line left in badly cut hair.^[4]
7. A step or stair (peldaño).^[4]
8. (Colombia) A rural bus with open sides and bench seats.^[14]
9. (Costa Rica, colloquial) A very tall, thin person.^[14]

Word family

• escalerilla
• escalerón

Related words

• escala
• escalón
• Latin scālae
• Portuguese escaleira
• French escalier

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 665
3. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. escala
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. escalera
5. ^ a b Lleal, Coloma (dir.), DICCA-XV: Diccionario del castellano del siglo XV en la Corona de Aragón, Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona, Grup d'Estudis d'Història de la Llengua (GHCL), https://ghcl.ub.edu/diccaxv
6. ^ a b Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva
8. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE
9. ^ a b c Boggs, R. S.; Kasten, Lloyd; Keniston, Hayward; Richardson, H. B. (1946), Tentative Dictionary of Medieval Spanish, 2 vols., Chapel Hill, N.C.
10. ^ a b Kasten, Lloyd A.; Nitti, John J.; Gago Jover, Francisco (2002–), Diccionario de la prosa castellana del Rey Alfonso X, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (electronic edition 2024)
11. ^ a b Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 759
12. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro
13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies)
14. ^ a b c Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer
15. ^ Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies