escalator

From the former trademark Escalator, created by American inventor Charles Seeberger in 1900, from Latin e (“from, out of”) + scala (“ladder”) + -tor, which forms nouns of agency. See the appendix. Broader usage may be influenced by escalate, and is equivalent to escalate +‎ -or. For an alternative etymology, see the Online Etymology Dictionary.^[1]

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈɛs.kə.leɪ.tə/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (US) enPR: esʹkə-lā-tər, IPA^(key): /ˈɛs.kə.leɪ.tɚ/
• Hyphenation: es‧ca‧la‧tor
• Rhymes: -eɪtə(ɹ)

escalator (plural escalators)

1. Anything that escalates.
   • 2006, Dudley D. Cahn, Ruth Anna Abigail, Managing Conflict Through Communication, page xiv:

     Fourth, communication researchers study the role of stress and negative attitudes as key contributors to conflict, anger as an escalator of conflict, and emotional residues as barriers to reconciliation.

2. A motor-driven mechanical device consisting of a continuous loop of steps that automatically conveys people from one floor to another.

   Synonym: moving staircase (UK)

   There is a plastic molly-guard covering the escalator's shutdown button to prevent little kids from pushing it and stopping the escalator.

   • 2012, Andrew Martin, Underground Overground: A passenger's history of the Tube, Profile Books, →ISBN, page xiv-xv, Preface:

     I found the Tube trains morbidly fascinating, I had a simpler enthusiasm for the escalators. Everyone likes going on escalators as far as I know. It feels like a free ride, and the longer they are, the better. The only escalator in York was at Marks & Spencer's, and people would hesitate for ages before getting on, apparently waiting for the right stair to come rolling along, whereas Londoners would step on while reading a newspaper.

   • 2021 June 30, Tim Dunn, “How we made... Secrets of the London Underground”, in RAIL, number 934, page 51:

     Episode Guide: [...] Episode 1 (July 13): Exploration of both ends of the abandoned branch between Holborn and Aldwych, including an interview with the driver of the last train. And a trip to Holloway Road to find out about the Tube's only spiral escalator. [This escalator never entered service]

3. An upward or progressive course.
   • 2009 February 19, Froma Harrop, “Housing aid may revive American dream for Latinos”, in Houston Chronicle:

     Lots of people fell for the pitch that real estate was an up-only escalator into the American Dream

4. An escalator clause.

   They agreed to a cost-of-living escalator.

• escalate

escalator (third-person singular simple present escalators, present participle escalatoring, simple past and past participle escalatored)

1. (intransitive, informal) To move by escalator.

   Synonym: (rare) escalate

   We escalatored to the second floor.

• movator
• moving pavement, moving sidewalk
• moving ramp
• moving walkway
• stairway
• step
• travelator

• escalator on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Category:escalators on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons

• acetarsol, crotalase

Borrowed from English. Genericized trademark.

• IPA^(key): /ɛs.ka.la.tɔʁ/

escalator m (plural escalators)

1. escalator

   Synonyms: escalier roulant, escalier mécanique

Borrowed from French escalator.

escalator n (plural escalatoare)

1. escalator