scala Italian · revision 38490

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=inherited|attested=first half of the 13th century, Ugieri Apugliese|origins=ine-pro *skend-}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * /ˈska.la/^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''scala''' ''f'' (plural scale)^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[inh|la|scala|alt=scālae|t=ladder; stairs]], a plural that classical Latin used with either singular or plural force and that passed to the singular in Late Latin.^(DELI 1999)^(GRADIT 2003)^(Treccani 2011)^(OLD 2012) Quintilian condemned the singular as a barbarism.^(OLD 2012) The same word is [[fr|échelle]], [[oc|escala]], [[ca|escala]], [[es|escala]], [[sc|iscala]] and [[ro|scară]], and [[pt|escala]] was taken from Spanish.^(Nocentini 2010)^(REW 1935)^(Körting 1907) Through Greek the Latin word reached [[tr|iskele|t=landing stage]].^(DEI|3364)^(REW 1935)

+

+ The Latin noun was formed from [[m|la|scandō|t=to climb, mount]] as [[m|la|*skand-slā]], a noun of the instrument for climbing.^(Nocentini 2010)^(de Vaan 2008)^(Devoto 1968)^(DEI|3364) The verb goes back through [[itc-pro|*skand-e/o-|t=to ascend]] to [[ine-pro|*skend-|t=to jump up, ascend]], the source also of [[sa|स्कन्दति|tr=skándati|t=leaps, springs]] and [[sga|sceinnid|t=jumps]].^(de Vaan 2008)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ DELI's first record is in Ugieri Apugliese, in the first half of the 13th century, with the sense “staircase”: the poet lists his trades, “I measure land and make stairs” (''Misuro terra e faccio scale'').^(DELI 1999)^(GDLI) Nocentini and Devoto–Oli date the word to the 12th century, GRADIT to the end of the 13th.^(Nocentini 2010)^(Devoto–Oli 2026)^(GRADIT 2003)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ The plural ''scale'' for a flight of steps is in the ''Novellino'' (late 13th century), and Iacopone da Todi, who died in 1306, uses the word for a ladder with rungs.^(DELI 1999) Dante's Cacciaguida warns him how hard a road it is “to go down and up another man's stairs” (''lo scendere e 'l salir per l'altrui scale'', ''Paradiso'' 17), a line about the bitterness of exile.^(Tommaseo–Bellini 1861)

+

+ Abstract senses came later: the cartographer's scale, the ratio between a length on the drawing and the real one, is first recorded before 1574 in Vasari, the musical scale in 1556 in Daniele Barbaro, any series ordered by degrees in 1666 in Magalotti, and the graduated part of an instrument in 1842.^(DELI 1999) Several scales are named after their inventors: the Celsius scale after the Swedish astronomer Anders Celsius, the Mercalli scale of earthquakes after the Milanese seismologist Giuseppe Mercalli.^(DELI 1999) In poker a ''scala'' is a straight (1940), and the card game ''scala quaranta'' takes its name from the forty points a player must lay down in sequences.^(DELI 1999) The proverb ''il mondo è fatto a scale, chi le scende e chi le sale'' “the world is made of stairs: some go down them and some go up” speaks of the changing fortunes of people.^(Treccani 2011)

+

+ Some fixed phrases follow other languages: ''su larga scala'' “on a large scale” copies French ''sur une grande échelle'' (1835), and ''scala mobile'' in the economic sense of a wage index is almost certainly a calque of English ''sliding scale'', perhaps helped by French ''échelle mobile'', while ''scala mobile'' “escalator” grew out of the older Italian sense “portable ladder”.^(DELI 1999)

+

+ English ''scale'' (1412–1420, in technical senses; musical scale 1598) may come from Italian or from Latin, and German ''Skala'' from Italian (1548); French ''échelle'' took the musical sense from Italian in 1703.^(DIFIT) Arabic borrowed the word as [[ar|سِقَالَة|tr=siqāla]].^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * First half of the 13th century – Ugieri Apugliese uses ''scale'' for stairs.^(DELI 1999)

+ * Late 13th century – The ''Novellino'' uses the plural for a flight of steps.^(DELI 1999)

+ * Before 1306 – Iacopone da Todi uses ''scala'' for a ladder.^(DELI 1999)

+ * 1412–1420 – English ''scale'' is first recorded in technical senses.^(DIFIT)

+ * 1548 – German ''Skala'' is first recorded.^(DIFIT)

+ * 1556 – Daniele Barbaro uses ''scala'' for a musical scale.^(DELI 1999)

+ * Before 1574 – Vasari uses it for the scale of a drawing.^(DELI 1999)

+ * 1666 – Magalotti uses it for any series ordered by degrees.^(DELI 1999)

+ * 1835 – French ''sur une grande échelle'', the model of ''su larga scala'', is recorded.^(DELI 1999)

+ * 1940 – Palazzi records the sense “straight” in poker.^(DELI 1999)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Noun===

+ # A [[m|en|staircase]]: a structure of steps, often in several flights with landings, that leads from one level to another: ''L'ascensore è guasto, quindi oggi faccio le scale a piedi.''^(GRADIT 2003)^(Devoto–Oli 2026)^(Sabatini–Coletti 2026)

+ # A [[m|en|ladder]]: a portable frame of two side pieces joined by rungs: ''Mi serve una scala per arrivare all'ultimo ripiano della libreria.''^(GRADIT 2003)^(Devoto–Oli 2026)^(Sabatini–Coletti 2026)

+ # A series of elements ordered by size, intensity or importance; a [[m|en|hierarchy]]: ''Nella scala delle sue priorità il lavoro viene sempre per ultimo.''^(GRADIT 2003)^(Sabatini–Coletti 2026)^(Zingarelli 2010)

+ # ''(science, technology)'' A system of conventional values for measuring a phenomenon: ''la scala Richter'', ''la scala Celsius''.^(GRADIT 2003)^(Sabatini–Coletti 2026)^(DELI 1999)

+ # ''(cartography, technical drawing)'' The [[m|en|scale]], the ratio between the measurements of a representation and those of the real object: ''Il plastico riproduce il quartiere in scala uno a cento.''^(Sabatini–Coletti 2026)^(DELI 1999)

+ # ''(by extension)'' Extent, size, range: ''L'azienda vuole vendere i suoi prodotti su scala mondiale.''^(Sabatini–Coletti 2026)

+ # ''(music)'' A succession of notes ordered by pitch.^(DELI 1999)^(Wikizionario)^(Wiktionary)

+ # ''(card games)'' In poker, a [[m|en|straight]], a sequence of five cards of consecutive value.^(Sabatini–Coletti 2026)^(DELI 1999)

+

+ ==Word family==

+ * [[scalo]]

+ * [[scalata]]

+ * [[scalatore]]

+ * [[scalea]]

+ * [[scaleo]]

+ * [[scaletta]]

+ * [[scalinata]]

+ * [[scalino]]

+ * [[scalone]]

+ * [[scalare]]

+ * [[sottoscala]]

+

+ ==Related words==

+ * [[scandire]]

+ * [[la|scando]]

+ * [[fr|échelle]]

+

+ ==Usage notes==

+ An old homograph ''scala'' meant “port of call, landing place”, a sense now taken by ''scalo'': Ariosto has ''fare scala'' “to put in at a port”, and Medieval Latin ''scala'' “port” is recorded at Genoa in 1157.^(DEI|3364)^(Prati 1951)^(GDLI) GRADIT dates it before 1442 and calls its origin uncertain, perhaps the same word, while Sabatini–Coletti, Gabrielli and the GDLI treat it as a feminine form of ''scalo''.^(GRADIT 2003)^(Sabatini–Coletti 2026)^(Gabrielli 2020)^(GDLI) French ''escale'' may come from it or from Occitan.^(DIFIT)

+

+ ''Fare le scale'' is the everyday phrase for going up or down the stairs.^(GRADIT 2003)^(Treccani 2011)

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}