escalade

Forms

escalade f (plural escalades)^[1]

Etymology

It is probably borrowed from Occitan escalada, the noun of the verb escalar (“to scale”) (recorded from the 13th century), itself from escala (“ladder”), of the same origin as French échelle.^[2][3][4][5] The Occitan noun is recorded only in the 17th century, as escalado in 1678, but it must be older;^[2][3][5][6] Bloch and Wartburg think it was borrowed during the Hundred Years' War.^[2][3][5][6] A borrowing from Italian scalata, recorded in 1614, is judged less likely by the TLFi and Bloch–Wartburg,^[2][5] though Littré and Wiktionary give the Italian word as the source.^[7][1] The ladder word goes back to Latin scāla (“ladder”).^[7][3]

In the Middle Ages French had said eschelement and the verb escheler, which lasted until the 18th century.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first recorded in 1456, in the Chronique de la Pucelle, for an assault on a fortified place by means of ladders.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

From the assault with ladders it passed (1707, Lesage) to the act of getting into an enclosed place over a wall or through a window or roof, a sense later defined in law.^[2][3][6] By analogy it became a mountaineering term (1816, Maine de Biran) for the ascent of a steep slope or rock face, and later of an artificial wall (mur d'escalade).^[2][3][8]

About 1964, through a sense borrowed from American English escalation, it came to mean a strategy of climbing the “rungs” of ever more serious military or diplomatic measures, and by extension any sharp rise, as in escalade des prix.^[3][8] The prefixed antonym désescalade dates from about the same time.^[3] English had taken the word as escalade in the 1590s.^[9]

Timeline

• 1456 – First record, in the Chronique de la Pucelle, for an assault with ladders.^[2][3]
• 1590s – English borrows the word.^[9]
• 1603 – The verb escalader is first recorded.^[5]
• 1678 – Occitan escalado is first recorded.^[2][3]
• 1707 – Lesage uses it for getting into a closed place over a wall or through a window.^[2][3]
• 1816 – Maine de Biran uses it as a mountaineering term.^[2][3]
• c. 1964 – The figurative sense of a step-by-step intensification appears, after English escalation.^[3][8]

Meanings

Noun

1. (dated) An assault on a fortified position by means of échelles.^[8][2][6]
2. (law) Getting into a house or enclosed place by the windows or over a wall or fence, as in avec escalade et effraction.^[8][2][6]
3. The act of climbing something: l'escalade d'un vieux chêne.^[8]
4. (sports) Climbing, the ascent of a mountain or rock face, and the sport of climbing, as in mur d'escalade.^[8][1][3]
5. (figurative) Escalation: a strategy of ever more serious military or diplomatic measures.^[8][3][1]
6. (by extension) A rapid rise or intensification, as in escalade des prix.^[8][3]

Word family

• escalader
• désescalade

Related words

• échelle
• escalator
• Latin scāla
• English escalade

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m 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 g h i j k l m n o p q Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ a b c d e f Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
6. ^ a b c d e Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse
7. ^ a b Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
9. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com