escada

Forms

escada f (plural escadas)^[1] The old form is escaada (13th–14th century); escada is recorded from the 14th century.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin *scālāta, a derivative of Latin scāla (“ladder, flight of steps”), written Old Galician-Portuguese escaada in the oldest texts.^[2][3][1][4] The old form shows the Latin ⟨l⟩ lost between vowels, and the two vowels then merged.^[2][4] García de Diego sets the same base under the Portuguese and Galician word, and lists an Old Spanish escalada (“staircase”).^[5] The word is also Galician escada, while the Spanish word for a staircase, escalera, is from a Latin scālāria.^[5][6] The simple Latin word is Spanish escala, Italian scala, Old French eschele and Romanian scară.^[1][7]

The Latin noun, mostly used in the plural scālae, is a derivative of scandō (“to climb”).^[8][9] Cunha and Wiktionary reconstruct it as *scand-s-lā.^[3][1] De Vaan traces the verb to Proto-Indo-European *skend- (“to jump up, ascend”).^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Houaiss dates escaada to the 13th century from Cunha's slips of medieval Portuguese.^[2] The Miragres de Santiago use escaada for a ladder: a woman buscou hũa escaada “fetched a ladder” to take a man down from the gallows.^[10]

Semantic evolution

From the first records the word covers both a fixed flight of steps and a portable ladder;^[11][12] Morais describes the ladder of two poles with rungs, or of two ropes, and the stone or wooden stair of buildings.^[11][12] Barbosa in 1611 already has the spiral stair, escada de caracol, which Morais calls escada de Malhorca.^[13][11]

The figurative sense “a means of rising” is in Figueiredo and the modern dictionaries.^[12][2] Whalers in Bahia call the belly of a whale escada, and in Brazilian comic theatre the escada is the actor who sets up the clown's jokes.^[2][14][15] In parts of the Alentejo escada means a ladder while the house stair is an escaleira.^[16] The word passed into Tetum as eskada.^[1]

Timeline

• 13th century – first record, as escaada.^[2]
• 14th century – the form escada.^[2][3]
• 1491 – escaada in the Vida de Santo Elói.^[17]
• c. 1525 – escada in the Memorial da Infanta Santa Joana.^[18]
• 1611 – Barbosa lists escada de caracol.^[13]
• 1813 – Morais describes escada de Malhorca, a spiral stair open in the middle.^[11]
• 1843 – first record of escadaria.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. A staircase, a series of steps for going up or down: Desceu a escada a correr.^[2][1]
2. A portable ladder of two side pieces joined by rungs; also a rope ladder.^[19][1]
3. Anything that looks like a stair or is used like one.^[2][20]
4. (figurative) A means of rising or getting what one wants; a stepping stone: O primeiro emprego foi a escada para a carreira dele.^[2][21]
5. (Bahia) The belly of a whale, among whalers.^[2][14]
6. (Brazil, theatre) The straight man who feeds lines to the comedian.^[15]

Word family

• escadaria
• escadinha
• escadote
• escadório
• escada rolante
• escada de caracol

Related words

• escala
• escaleira
• escalar
• escalada
• Latin scāla
• Galician escada
• Spanish escalera

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Houaiss, Antônio; Villar, Mauro de Salles (2001), Dicionário Houaiss da língua portuguesa, Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, p. s.v. escada
3. ^ a b c d e Cunha, Antônio Geraldo da (2010), Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa, 4th ed., Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon, p. s.v. escada
4. ^ a b Nascentes, Antenor (1966), Dicionário etimológico resumido, Rio de Janeiro: Instituto Nacional do Livro, p. s.v. escada
5. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954)
6. ^ Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. escala
7. ^ Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 665
8. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ Instituto da Lingua Galega, Dicionario de dicionarios do galego medieval (DDGM), ed. Ernesto González Seoane, Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/ddgm, p. s.v. escaada
11. ^ a b c d Silva, António de Morais (1813), Diccionario da lingua portugueza, 2nd ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Typographia Lacerdina, p. 1, 733
12. ^ a b c Figueiredo, Cândido de (1899), Novo diccionário da língua portuguesa, 1st ed., 2 vols., Lisboa: Tavares Cardoso & Irmão, p. 531
13. ^ a b Barbosa, Agostinho (1611), Dictionarium lusitanicolatinum, Braga: Fructuoso Lourenço de Basto (CLP transcription, Universidade de Aveiro), p. s.v. escada
14. ^ a b Navarro, Fred (2004), Dicionário do Nordeste, São Paulo: Estação Liberdade, p. s.v. escada
15. ^ a b Wikcionário (Portuguese Wiktionary), pt.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. escada
16. ^ Instituto da Lingua Galega, Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués (TLPGP), Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, https://ilg.usc.gal/tesouro, p. s.v. escada
17. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. escaada
18. ^ Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa, CTA – Corpus de Textos Antigos, https://teitok.clul.ul.pt/cta, p. s.v. escada
19. ^ Porto Editora (2013), Grande Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, Porto: Porto Editora, p. 3754
20. ^ Michaelis: Moderno Dicionário da Língua Portuguesa, São Paulo: Melhoramentos (online as Michaelis Dicionário Brasileiro da Língua Portuguesa, https://michaelis.uol.com.br), p. s.v. escada
21. ^ Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa, Lisboa: Priberam Informática, https://dicionario.priberam.org, p. s.v. escada