Escalade

So when you hear this word I bet the first thing you think of is the SUV by Cadillac. That’s OK, a lot of these words are far older than you would think.

Escalade actually goes all the way back to Latin word scala or ladder. From there to medieval Latin scalare “to scale, climb”. From there into the late 16th century where it found its way into French and Spanish where “to climb” stuck.

So where did it come from? Well back in the day men and resources were so scarce that not many field battles were fought. Instead, it was decided that sieges were to be the order of the day.  For the defenders, it meant hunkering down in fortifications or castles and waiting for the attackers to come at them. For the attackers it meant either pounding the walls with artillery or climbing the walls and taking the place by force. So the has to scale the walls, or climb the walls. that attack became known as the “escalade”. And there we are.

What that has to do with an SUV from Cadillac is a mystery to me.  Maybe climbing over the competition or scaling the mean streets or… Nope no idea.