scalaris

Forms

scālāris (neuter scālāre); third-declension two-termination adjective^[1]

Etymology

It is from Latin scālae + -āris, from the plural scālae (“ladder, steps”).^[2][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Vitruvius is the first to use it, of rods joined in the shape of a ladder.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

Its sense is “of a ladder or flight of steps”.^[2][4] Vitruvius also uses the neuter plural scalaria as a noun for the flights of steps in a theatre,^[2][4] and inscriptions have the singular scalare in the same sense.^[2][4]

English borrowed it as scalar “resembling a ladder” in the 1650s; the mathematical sense was coined by William R. Hamilton in 1846,^[5] and Wiktionary records that sense for the Latin word too.^[1]

Timeline

• c. 84–c. 25 BC – Vitruvius uses it of a ladder-like frame and, as a noun, of a theatre's steps.^[2][3]
• 1650s – English borrows it as scalar.^[5]
• 1846 – William R. Hamilton gives scalar its sense in mathematics.^[5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of or relating to a ladder or a flight of steps.^[2][4][6]
2. (neuter plural as noun, scalaria) A flight of steps, a staircase;^[2][4] (singular scalare) the same.^[2][4]
3. (mathematics) scalar.^[1]

Word family

• subscālāris

Related words

• scālārium

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
4. ^ a b c d e f Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson