ascensor

From French ascenseur, Italian ascensore, and Spanish ascensor, all from Latin ascēnsor.

ascensor (plural ascensors)

1. (rare) An elevator.
   • 1896 November 14, Auguste [pseudonym], “Auguste en Angleterre. Edimbourg. (Contd.)”, in Punch, or The London Charivari, volume CXI, number 2888, London: […] Bradbury, Agnew, & Co. Ld., […], page 233, column 2:

     He is even more slow than the ascensors of the italian hotels. And, par dessus le marché, above the market, one sees on the door the american word “Elevator,” that which is the most rapid ascensor of the world!

   • 1906 October 14, Lewis R[ansome] Freeman, “Wretched Valparaiso. A City With a Record of Hard Luck That Is Unequalled. […]”, in The Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles, Calif., page 7, column 1:

     With the construction of the present system of ascensors or elevators the worst drawback to hill life was done away with. […] I believe that the Valparaiso women owe their fine figures largely to hill climbing, a good deal of which is still necessary in parts to which the ascensors do not reach.

   • 1910, Agness Greene Foster, “Italy”, in By the Way: Travel Letters Written During Several Journeys Abroad […], revised and enlarged edition, San Francisco, Calif.: Paul Elder & Company […], pages 64–65:

     We have an ascensor in our pension. The big concierge puts me in, locks the door, unlocks the catch, and lets it go. When it gets to my floor it is supposed to stop, and in the same breath to have its door unfastened, and all I have to do is to walk out. Sometimes, however, it stops midway between floors, and then I wish I had walked up. I find Roman and Spanish steps just as fatiguing to climb as any others, and patronize the ascensors with vigor.

   • 1910, Nevin O[tto] Winter, “Along the Coast to the Capital”, in Brazil and Her People of To-day […], Boston, Mass.: L[ouis] C[oues] Page and Company, pages 31 and 40:

     The upper city, or Cidade Alta, is reached by a long winding road, or by means of the ascensors, or elevators, of which there are several. […] Here and there moved streaks of light as the electric cars dashed along; and again, similar streaks moved up and down as the ascensors carried their loads.

   • 1913, Annie S[mith] Peck, “Valparaiso”, in The South American Tour […], New York, N.Y.: George H[enry] Doran Company […], pages 167–168:

     The ascensors are similar to those of Cincinnati, one being carried up by cable as another is coming down; but the inclines seemed steeper and one appeared rather rickety. […] Through cañons here and there separating the various hills and bluffs, a few carriage roads wind steeply upward and more footpaths, by which some pedestrians climb; but most persons will prefer to save time and strength by taking their chances in an ascensor. […] By another ascensor, a trip should be made to the Naval School, which crowns a splendid height nearer the outer edge of the harbor.

   • 1918, Mary H[azelton] Wade, “The Vale of Paradise”, in Twin Travelers in South America […], New York, N.Y.: Frederick A[bbott] Stokes Company […], part III (Traveling along the Shoe-String), pages 182 and 192:

     “[…] The rest of you can take one of the ascensors, as the people here call those queer elevators.” […] The upshot of it was that Joe and Carlos met the others at the foot of the ascensor agreed upon, with dusty shoes and perspiring faces, but happy from what had seemed to them a good frolic. […] “The lights must come from the ascensors as they travel up and down,” said Miss Lee.

   • 1925 June, A[lpheus] Hyatt Verrill, “Coasting Down the Long Fringe of Chile […]”, in Edward Hale Bierstadt, editor, Travel, volume XLV, number 2, Camden, N.J.: Robert M[edill] McBride & Company, Inc., pages 21, column 2, and 48, column 3:

     The customary method is to reach the upper tiers of the city by means of ascensors, which are boxlike cars running on steel rails and operated by cables. […] To reach these upper strata of residence and business streets broad flights of stairs are provided at intervals or one may go aloft in the elevator of an office building and reach another street; but the customary and popular method is to travel to the upper tiers of the city by means of one of the numerous ascensors. […] From any one of the upper streets, reached by the ascensors, the visitor has a marvelous panorama spread at his feet.

   • 1964 [1934 May], Marina Tsvetaeva, translated by Collyer Bowen, “The Kirillovnas”, in Andrew Field, editor, Pages from Tarusa: New Voices in Russian Writing, Boston, Mass.; Toronto, Ont.: Little, Brown and Company, →LCCN, →OCLC, “Tarusa’s Past and Present” section, page 298:

     Whether it’s a train, a cart, a boat, a landau with or without springs, a ferry or an ascensor — it doesn’t make any difference, she’s always nauseated, everywhere she’s nauseated . . . and they call it seasickness!

   • 1994, Poul Anderson, The Stars Are Also Fire (Harvest of Stars; 2), New York, N.Y.: Tor, →ISBN, pages 45 (chapter 3) and 78 (chapter 7):

     An ascensor brought them to a hallway where the illusion of a vast metallic plain was being overwhelmed by blue mists in which flames flickered many-hued and half-glimpses of monsters flitted by, whistling or laughing. […] The outer valve had already withdrawn, when the portal sealed fast to an ascensor shaft in the cradle.

   • 2003, Gav Thorpe, “The Tale of Boreas: Part Three”, in Angels of Darkness (A Warhammer 40,000 Novel), Nottingham, Nottinghamshire: Black Library, published 2008, →ISBN, pages 143 and 171:

     He made his way to the ascensor to take him down three levels to the Space Marine quarters. […] As he waited for the ascensor to clank and rattle its way up the shaft, he pondered exactly what he would tell them. […] ‘How secure is this area?’ / ‘One access point by the stairwell within one hundred metres, three ascensors within the same distance,’ he replied after a brief pause.

From Latin ascēnsor.

ascensor m (plural ascensores)

1. lift, elevator

Borrowed from Latin ascēnsōrem.

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic) [ə.sənˈso]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [a.senˈsoɾ]

• Audio (Catalonia):

  (file)

ascensor m (plural ascensors)

1. elevator, lift

• “ascensor”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], April 2007
• “ascensor”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2025
• “ascensor” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• “ascensor” in Diccionari català-valencià-balear, Antoni Maria Alcover and Francesc de Borja Moll, 1962.

Learned borrowing from Latin ascēnsōrem.

ascensor m (plural ascensores)

1. lift, elevator

• “ascensor”, in Dicionario da Real Academia Galega (in Galician), A Coruña: Royal Galician Academy, 2012–2025

ad- (“(up) to”) +‎ scandō (“climb”) +‎ -tor (agentive suffix)

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [asˈkẽː.sɔr]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [aʃˈʃɛn.sor]

ascēnsor m (genitive ascēnsōris); third declension

1. one who ascends
2. rider, charioteer (person who mounts a horse or rides a chariot)
3. (New Latin) lift, elevator

Third-declension noun.

• “ascensor”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• "ascensor", in Charles du Fresne du Cange’s Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887)
• ascensor in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.

Borrowed from Latin ascēnsōrem.

• Hyphenation: as‧cen‧sor

ascensor m (plural ascensores)

1. lift (mechanical device for vertically transporting goods or people)

   Synonym: elevador

• “ascensor”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2025

Borrowed from French ascenseur.

• IPA^(key): /as.t͡ʃenˈsor/

• Audio:

  (file)

ascensor n (plural ascensoare)

1. elevator, lift

   Synonym: lift

Borrowed from Latin ascēnsor.

• IPA^(key): /asθenˈsoɾ/ [as.θẽnˈsoɾ] (Spain)
• IPA^(key): /asenˈsoɾ/ [a.sẽnˈsoɾ] (Latin America, Philippines)

• Audio (Colombia):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -oɾ
• Syllabification: as‧cen‧sor

ascensor m (plural ascensores)

1. (not used in Mexico) elevator, lift

   Synonym: (Mexico, also sometimes in El Salvador) elevador

• “ascensor”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 10 December 2024