Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Escalator |
EscalatorNoun1. A clause in a contract that provides for an increase or a decrease in wages or prices or benefits etc. depending on certain conditions (as a change in the cost of living index). 2. A stairway whose steps move continuously on a circulating belt. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Etymology: Escalator \Es"ca*la`tor\, noun. [New Latin expression. Compare to Escalade.]. (references) |
| Domain | Definition |
Transportation | A set of stairs arranged like an endless belt and power driven so that the steps or treads may be made to ascend or descend continuously. Source: European Union. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
An escalator is a conveyor transport device to transport people, consisting of a staircase whose steps move up or down on tracks which keep them horizontal. Most escalators also have moving handrails which approximately keep pace with the movement of the steps.
escalator
Larger version
The direction of movement (up or down) can be permanently the same, or be controlled by personnel according to the time of day, or automatically be controlled by whoever arrives first, someone at the bottom or at the top (of course the system is programmed such that the direction is not reversed while somebody is on the escalator). In the last two cases there has to be an alternative nearby.Charles Seeberger developed the escalator and installed the first one as an amusement ride at Coney Island, New York in 1897. He joined the Otis Elevator Company and they produced the first commercial escalator which won a first prize at the Paris 1900 Exposition Universelle in France.
Escalators in the London Underground used to have wooden steps, but this was changed after the Kings Cross fire at Kings Cross St Pancras tube station in 1987. Escalators now have metal steps in a continuous loop that move on tracks. Escalators are typically used in pairs with one going up and the other going down. Some modern escalators in stores and shopping malls have glass sides which allow their workings to be viewed. Although most escalators are straight, some shopping malls use curved versions.
When using escalators, passengers who wish to stand and let themselves be carried up or down should stand on one side to allow more impatient users to walk past them. There has been reports of people actually falling off an moving escalator or part of their shoe gets stuck in part of the escalator. However, which side varies from place to place. On the London Underground and Washington Metro, standees are asked to keep to the right.
An extensive system of escalators and moving sidewalks form a public transport system in Hong Kong; see conveyor transport.
Etymology
Escalator was originally a trademark combining the words escalade (an old term for using a ladder to scale a wall) and elevator.
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Escalator."
Synonyms: EscalatorSynonyms: escalator clause (n), moving staircase (n), moving stairway (n). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Elevation | Dumbwaiter, elevator, escalator, lift. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Escalator |
| Specialty definitions using "escalator": SERVICE REPRESENTATIVE, ELEVATORS, ESCALATORS, AND DUMBWAITERS. (references) |
| Non-English Usage: "Escalator" is also a word in the following languages with English translations in parentheses. French (escalator), Romanian (escalator, moving staircase). |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | Listen, not a year goes by, not a year, that I don't hear about some escalator accident involving some bastard kid which could have easily been avoided had some parent--I don't care which one--but some parent conditioned him to fear and respect that escalator (Mallrats; writing credit: Kevin Smith) That kid is back on the escalator again (Mallrats ; writing credit: Kevin Smith) Where? Up the escalator at Bloomingtons, or Bloomingbirds or where ever the hell it is (The Electric Horseman; writing credit: Shelly Burton; Paul Gaer) I'm a doctor, not an escalator! (Star Trek; writing credit: Walter Black; William Hamilton) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title | ||
Books |
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Music |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
 | Roanoke station of the Virginia & Western Railroad, Roanoke, Virginia. Escalator. Credit: Library of Congress. |  | Hahne & Co., business in Montclair, New Jersey. Toward escalator. Credit: Library of Congress. |
 | Gimbels, business in Valley Stream, Long Island. Escalator. Credit: Library of Congress. |  | Rich's department store, business in Knoxville, Tennessee. Escalator. Credit: Library of Congress. |
 | Idlewild Airport arrivals building. Escalator. Credit: Library of Congress. |  | Lord & Taylor, business in Washington, D.C. Escalator. Credit: Library of Congress. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
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| "Escalator" by Jesse Koska Commentary: "Taken in Nashville, TN." | "Man on an escalator" by Jan Tautenhahn Commentary: "Man standing on an escalator at the charles de gaulle airport in paris, france." |
Source: photographs selected by the editor, with permission from the photographers. | |
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Business | The Singapore Fire Safety Bureau (FSB) has outlined proposed regulations for the elevator and escalator industry. (references) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| "Escalator" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 100.00% of the time. "Escalator" is used about 87 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 100% | 87 | 35,390 |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "escalator": escalator clause ♦ escalator pension. Additional references. | |
| Hypenated Usage | |
Ending with "escalator": down-escalator. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Language | Translations for "escalator"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | shkallë lëvizëse. (various references) | |
Arabic | سلم متحرك, سلم دوار, درج متحرك. (various references) | |
Bulgarian | ескалатор (moving staircase). (various references) | |
Chinese | 自动扶梯, 自動樓梯 . (various references) | |
Czech | eskalátor, pohyblivì schodištì. (various references) | |
Danish | rullende trappe (electric stairway, moving staircase, moving stairway). (various references) | |
Dutch | roltrap (electric stairway, moving staircase, moving stairway). (various references) | |
Esperanto | eskalatoro. (various references) | |
Farsi | پله برقی . (various references) | |
Finnish | rullaportaat, liukuportaat (moving staircase), liukuporras (electric stairway, moving staircase, moving stairway). (various references) | |
French | escalator, escalier roulant, escalier mécanique. (various references) | |
German | rolltreppe (moving staircase, stairmoving). (various references) | |
Greek | κύλιωμενη σκάλα, κινούμενη κλίμακα, κυλιόμενη σκάλα (electric stairway, moving staircase, moving stairway), κυλιέμενη σκάλα. (various references) | |
Hebrew | מדרגות נעות, דרגנוע (moving staircase). (various references) | |
Hungarian | mozgólépcső (moving staircase, moving stairway). (various references) | |
Indonesian | tangga berjalan. (various references) | |
Italian | scala mobile (sliding scale, threshold agreement). (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | エコロジー運動 (ecological movement, Edison, ego, egotism, egotist, egotistic, Egypt, Esaki diode, escalate, escalation, escalope, ESCAP, Eskimo, sado-masochism, Save Our Souls, science fiction, SF, shallot, sister, sketch, snail, Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, SOS). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | エスカレーター . (various references) | |
Manx | greeishtroailt. (various references) | |
Norwegian | rulletrapp. (various references) | |
Pig Latin | escalatoray.(various references) | |
Portuguese | escada rolante (electric stairway, moving staircase, moving stairway). (various references) | |
Romanian | escalator (moving staircase), scarã rulantã (moving staircase), scarã (a pair of stairs, flight, footboard, ladder, rank, riser, running board, scale, series, staircase, stairs, step, steps, stirrup). (various references) | |
Russian | эскалатор (moving staircase). (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | pokretne stepenice (moving staircase). (various references) | |
Spanish | escalera mecánica (electric stairway, moving staircase, moving stairway), escalera móvil (moving staircase). (various references) | |
Swedish | rulltrappa (electric stairway, moving staircase, moving stairway). (various references) | |
Thai | บันไดเลื่อน. (various references) | |
Turkish | eskalasyon şartı (escalator clause), enflasyona uyumlu maaş artışı maddesi, yürüyen merdiven (moving staircase, moving stairway). (various references) | |
Turkmen | eskalator (r). (various references) | |
Ukrainian | ескалатор. (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "escalator": escalators, escalatory. (additional references) | |
| |
"Escalator" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: esalator, escalat, escavator, Mescalero. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "escalator" (pronounced e"skulā'ter) |
| 6 | -k u l ā' t er | percolator. |
| 5 | -u l ā' t er | accumulator, calculator, defibrillator, insulator, manipulator, modulator, oscillator, regulator, simulator, speculator, stimulator, ventilator, violator. |
| 4 | -l ā' t er | legislator. |
| 3 | -ā' t er | educator, elevator, accelerator, activator, actuator, administrator, agitator, alligator, allocator, alternator, animator, applicator, appropriator, arbitrator, aviator, carburetor, cogenerator, collaborator, commentator, communicator, conciliator, consolidator, coordinator, decorator, demonstrator, denominator, detonator, evaporator, excavator, exterminator, fabricator, facilitator, generator, gladiator, illuminator, illustrator, imitator, incinerator, incubator, indicator, infiltrator, innovator, instigator, integrator, interrogator, investigator, irrigator, liquidator, litigator, locator, mediator, Moderator, navigator, negotiator, operator, originator, perpetrator, radiator, refrigerator, renovator, respirator, syndicator, Terminator. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-a-c-e-l-o-r-s-t" | |
-1 letter: acerolas, cataloes, locaters, sectoral. | |
-2 letters: acerola, acetals, aerosat, alastor, areolas, carates, cartels, catalos, clarets, claroes, coalers, coastal, coaster, coaters, colters, corslet, costrel, crestal, escolar, lactase, lactose, lectors, locater, locates, oracles, ostraca, recoals, scalare, scarlet, scrotal, solacer, talcose. | |
-3 letters: acetal, actors, alates, alerts, altars, alters, aortae, aortal, aortas, arecas, areola, artels, astral, caesar, calesa. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-a-c-e-l-o-r-s-t" | |
+1 letter: catalogers, escalators, escalatory, sacerdotal, scleromata. | |
+2 letters: aeroelastic, cataloguers, collaterals, defalcators, ejaculators, emasculator, lacerations, malefactors, reallocates, translocate. | |
+3 letters: accelerators, altercations, carboxylates, collaborates, contrastable, declarations, emasculators, forecastable, intercoastal, reclamations, reescalation, sacerdotally, secobarbital, spectatorial, translocated, translocates. | |
+4 letters: accelerations, agranulocytes, archaeologist, calefactories, congratulates, coplanarities, galactorrheas, melodramatics, oracularities, parfocalities, plantocracies, procathedrals, reallocations, reescalations, sacerdotalism, sacerdotalist, sclerodermata, secobarbitals, throatlatches. | |
+5 letters: aeroelasticity, allosterically, archaeologists, campylobacters, cantankerously, cartelizations, collaboratives, collateralizes, conservational, conservatorial, constabularies, conversational, convertaplanes, counterassault, cyanoacrylates, decarboxylates, ergastoplasmic, fractionalizes, intercalations, nonspectacular, particleboards, polycarbonates, preconsonantal, reapplications, recalculations, recalibrations, sacerdotalisms, sacerdotalists, secularization, valedictorians. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Slideshow 7. Images: Photo Album 8. Images: Digital Art | 9. Quotations: Non-fiction 10. Usage Frequency 11. Expressions 12. Expressions: Internet | 13. Translations: Modern 14. Derivations 15. Rhymes 16. Anagrams | 17. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
