Though “escalate” is a kind of funny one. “Scale” (meaning climb up) and “escalade” (a military attack of a fort by soldiers climbing up ladders leaning agains

Though “escalate” is a kind of funny one. “Scale” (meaning climb up) and “escalade” (a military attack of a fort by soldiers climbing up ladders leaning against the walls) are both from the Latin words for ladder/climb. “Escalator” was the trade name of the first commercially successful version of the moving staircase idea at the turn of the 20th century. The company otherwise made elevators, so “escalator” was some kind of invented mashup of “elevator” and “escalade”. There were various competing products under other names, but “escalator” was memorable and easy to understand in relation to the word “elevator”, so their name became the generic term.