The story
- Latin · derived fromscala
- Welsh · derived fromysgol
- Welsh · derived fromystol
- English todayShalott
The variation between Ast- and Asc- suggest that it comes from Welsh ystol, alternate form Welsh ysgol, both meaning ladder (and derived from Latin scala). The suffix is diminutive, probably meaning flight of stairs (since she lived in a tower). Thus lady of the staircase.
Words from the same roots
Latinscala all →
scalescalaechelonscalariform
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.