Etymology

scalable

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Today it means: Capable of being climbed. Full definition →

First used 16th c.English scale ← Middle English scale ← Latin scāla
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The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European*skend-
  2. Proto-Indo-European*(s)kn̥d-sleh₂
  3. Proto-Italic*skand-slā
  4. Latinscāla
  5. Middle Englishscale
  6. Englishscale
  7. English todayscalable

From scale + -able.

First known use, by meaning

  • from 16th c. Capable of being climbed.
  • from 20th c. Able to be changed in scale; resizeable.
  • from 1980s Able to greatly increase in capacity, with relative ease.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.