échelle

Forms

échelle f (plural échelles)^[1] Old French eschale (about 1150) and eschiele (about 1175); ⟨eschelle⟩ in the 14th century and ⟨échelle⟩ from 1636.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French eschale, inherited from Latin scāla (“ladder”), a word mostly used in the plural scālae (“stairs, steps, ladder”).^[2][4][5] The Latin word is derived from scandō (“to climb”) (see scander), which Rey connects with an Indo-European root Proto-Indo-European *skand-.^[4][6] It is a doublet of escale.^[1][6]

Cognate with Italian scala, Occitan escala, Spanish escala, Portuguese escada and Romanian scară.^[6][7][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The Roman de Thèbes (about 1150) has eschale for a ladder.^[2][4]

Semantic evolution

As in Latin, it first named the movable ladder.^[4] In the 17th century échelle de potence was still the stair of the scaffold, whence échelle “gallows” and the lost phrase sentir l'échelle “to deserve exemplary punishment” (1668).^[4][3] The rope ladder (1636) and the double ladder (1680) followed, and at sea it is used for a fixed or movable stair.^[4][6] Tirer l'échelle (1657) means that nobody can do better, and faire la courte échelle (1835) is to help someone up with one's hands and shoulders.^[4][2]

From the 17th century it also named a trading port or port of call, properly the place where a ladder was set down for landing (see escale), as in the historical Échelles du Levant and Échelles de Barbarie.^[4][2][8] In 1685 it named the graduated line of sea charts, and so the ratio between a size and its representation;^[4] the musical scale is also recorded in 1685.^[9] By 1690 dyers used it for a gradation of shades.^[2] From the late 18th century it meant any graded series, as in échelle sociale (1821).^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1150 – The Roman de Thèbes has eschale.^[2][4]
• c. 1175 – Chrétien de Troyes writes eschiele.^[3]
• 1636 – Monet records échelle de corde.^[2][3][4]
• 1654 – It names a port of call.^[4]
• 1657 – The phrase tirer l'échelle appears.^[2][4]
• 1668 – Molière uses sentir l'échelle.^[3][4]
• 1681 – Échelles du Levant is recorded.^[8][9]
• 1685 – Furetière records the graduated line of maps and the musical scale.^[4][9]
• 1690 – Furetière records the dyers' gradation of shades.^[2]
• 1797 – Sur une plus grande échelle appears in the account of La Pérouse's voyage.^[2]
• 1821 – Joseph de Maistre writes échelle sociale.^[2]
• 1835 – The Académie records faire la courte échelle.^[2][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A ladder;^[6][2][1] échelle double, a stepladder, échelle de corde, a rope ladder; at sea, a fixed or movable stair.^[6][2][1]
2. Faire la courte échelle à quelqu'un: to give someone a leg up, literally and figuratively.^[6][2]
3. Il n'y a plus qu'à tirer l'échelle: nobody can do better, or it is no use going on.^[6][4]
4. A run, or ladder, in a stocking or tights.^[6]
5. (figurative) A graded series, a hierarchy: l'échelle sociale.^[6][2]
6. A scale, the ratio between the size of a map or drawing and the real size; also size or extent: à grande échelle.^[1][4][6]
7. (music) A musical scale: échelle diatonique.^[1][9]
8. (history) A trading port of the Levant: les Échelles du Levant.^[4][8][2]

Word family

• échelon
• échelonner
• échelonnement
• échelette

Related words

• escale
• escalier
• escalade
• Latin scāla

Usage notes

Littré gives a separate, obsolete échelle, a squadron or troop of horsemen, from Old French eschele, found in the Song of Roland; he derives it from eschiere and a Germanic word for a troop.^[7] Bloch and Wartburg likewise explain Old French eschiele “group of armed men” (about 1080) as an alteration of eschiere, from Frankish *skara.^[8]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g 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 Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
3. ^ a b c d e f Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ Wartburg, Walther von, et al. (1922–2002), Französisches Etymologisches Wörterbuch, 25 vols., Bonn / Leipzig / Basel: Klopp / Teubner / Zbinden, p. 11, 263a
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
8. ^ a b c d e Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
9. ^ a b c d Quemada, Bernard, ed. (1959–2006), Datations et documents lexicographiques (Base historique du vocabulaire français, BHVF), Paris: Klincksieck / CNRS / Champion; ATILF