escalate: [20] Escalate is a back-formation from escalator [20], which was originally a tradename for a moving staircase first made in the USA around 1900 by the Otis Elevator Company. This in turn seems to have been coined (probably on the model of elevator) from escalade [16], a term in medieval warfare signifying the scaling of a fortified wall, which came via French and Spanish from medieval Latin scalāre, source of English scale ‘climb’. Escalate originally meant simply ‘ascend on an escalator’; the metaphorical sense ‘increase’ developed at the end of the 1950s.
escalate (v.)
1922, "to use an escalator," back-formation from escalator, replacing earlier verb escalade (1801), from the noun escalade. Escalate came into general use with a figurative sense of "raise" from 1959 (intrans.), originally in reference to scenarios for possible nuclear war. Related: Escalated; escalating. Transitive figurative sense is by 1962.
实用例句
1. Costs can escalate terrifyingly.
成本的上涨速度会很惊人。来自柯林斯例句
2. Ground rents are likely to escalate over time.
地租以后可能会逐渐上涨。来自柯林斯例句
3. Conditions are still very tense and the fighting could escalate at any time.
局势仍然非常紧张，战斗随时可能升级。来自柯林斯例句
4. Both unions and management fear the dispute could escalate.
工会和管理层都担心争端会恶化。来自辞典例句
5. Defeat could cause one side or other to escalate the conflict.
