scaling up a mountain

V

Vjean

Senior Member
filipino
To scale up a mountain to ascend, to climb up. I am curious how the word 'scale' become associated with climbing up, when it means, more or less, of scales on fish, or of weighing device. Anyone's thoughts on this? Thanks a real lot guys!
 
    • Etymonline.com:
    "to climb by or as by a ladder," late 14c., from scale (n.) "a ladder," from Latin scala "ladder, flight of stairs," from *scansla, from stem of scandere "to climb" (see scan (v.)). Related: Scaled; scaling.
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    Many thanks guys. Would scaling down be readily understandable as descending, as scaling up for ascending? None of the dictionary mentions scaling down as descent, instead it's sizing down or some sort of adjustments.
     
    To scale up/down usually means to make it larger/smaller, not to climb it.
    We need to scale up production. We need to produce more items.
     
    Thanks Myridon. if there's scaling up for climbing up, why not scaling down for going down?
     
    We don't "scale up" mountains; we just scale them, since scale means to climb up.

    As Myridon pointed out, it's derived from scalae, Latin for "ladder"; does that explain this meaning of scale?

    (The scales on a fish, and the weighing device called a scale, have different etymologies.)
     
    Wow! Parla! Simply, you've pointed that out precisely; so it is scale the mountain, the summit etc. how about descending? Could there be any way to apply the word for descent?
     
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