English
scale
Scale comes from Latin scāla ‘ladder, stairs’, and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *skend- ‘to jump up, ascend’.
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*skend-1‘to jump up, ascend’reconstructed
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*(s)kn̥d-sleh₂2reconstructed
- Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*skand-slā2reconstructed
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEscāla2‘ladder; stairs’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500scale2‘ladder’
- Englishearliest quotation c. 1608–1609scale2
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
- 1 Wiktionary, Latin scando
- 2 Wiktionary, English scale
- Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1608–1609, William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Coriolanus: “Scaling his present bearing with his past.”.
Lineage
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*skend-Wiktionary, Latin scando‘to jump up, ascend’reconstructed
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*(s)kn̥d-sleh₂Wiktionary, English scalereconstructed
- Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*skand-slāWiktionary, English scalereconstructed
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEscālaWiktionary, English scale‘ladder; stairs’
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500scaleWiktionary, English scale‘ladder’
- Englishearliest quotation c. 1608–1609scaleWiktionary, English scale. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: c. 1608–1609, William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Coriolanus: “Scaling his present bearing with his past.”
Word family
English words that share an ancestor with scale, grouped by the ancestor they share, most familiar first.
through Proto-Indo-European *skend- ‘to jump up, ascend’
- slander ← slaundre ← esclandre ← scandalum ← σκάνδαλον
- descend ← descenden ← descendere ← dēscendere
- scandalous ← scandalouse ← scandaleux ← scandalōsus ← scandalum
- skein ← skaine ← escaigne
through Latin scandō ‘to climb’
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Another origin of scale
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*skolH-eh₂reconstructed
- Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*skalō‘shell, husk’reconstructed
- Old Frenchc. 842–1400escale‘shell’uncertain
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500scale‘flake’
- Englishtodayscale
Another origin of scale
- Proto-Germanicc. 500 BCE–200 CE*skēlōreconstructed
- Old Norsec. 800–1350skál‘bowl’
- Northern Middle Englishmodernscale
- Englishtodayscale
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Today it means
noun A ladder; a series of steps; a means of ascending.
Sources
Sources: Wiktionary, “scale”; the older steps come from the Wiktionary entry for Latin scando. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.
Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *skend- / scale