# American/British Language question **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 10, 2001, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-british-language-question/49360 "2001-01-10T17:25:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![AWB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bb73d2/32.png) [@AWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AWB)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2001, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-british-language-question/49360/1 "2001-01-10T17:25:17Z")
Coming from an IMHO thread about when we’d last used an elevator, I thought of this: Americans call them elevators. Britons call them lifts. (Both terms are descriptive, yet the American term seems more pretentious.) But what do Britons call the devices we Americans call escalators (i.e., moving staircases)? (And don’t ‘elevate’, ‘escalate’, and ‘lift’ all mean the same thing anyway? :D:D ) ---
**Author:** ![ticker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d07c76/32.png) [@ticker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ticker)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2001, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-british-language-question/49360/2 "2001-01-10T17:39:25Z")
escalators ---
**Author:** ![Celyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9dc877/32.png) [@Celyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Celyn)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2001, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-british-language-question/49360/3 "2001-01-10T17:39:38Z")
Sadly, I think we only call them “escalators” or (more likely from young children) “moving staircases”. Not very inspired, is it? Maybe I should invent a new word, and come back to you later to tell you something completely untrue, just for fun.🙂 But you wouldn’t believe me now. ---
**Author:** ![ianzin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/ed655f/32.png) [@ianzin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ianzin)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2001, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-british-language-question/49360/4 "2001-01-10T19:24:01Z")
We call them escalators. Some buildings over here also feature what is called a ‘paternoster’. Performs the same function as an elevator/lift, but there are no doors. Consists of a continuous ‘chain’ of elevator-type boxes running the full height of the building. The chain is cnstantly moving, so each ‘box’ moves up, then across to the down side, down, then across to the up side. Are these things much seen over there? ---
**Author:** ![Stella\_Fantasia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/74df32/32.png) [@Stella\_Fantasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stella_Fantasia)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2001, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-british-language-question/49360/5 "2001-01-10T19:29:12Z")
No doors? Isn’t that dangerous? I don’t think we have such things here in America. I would remember seeing something like that. & what an odd name for such a device!! Wonder what the etymology is on that one…are they as dangerous as I think they are, such that you say an Our Father before you get on? ---
**Author:** ![tourbot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@tourbot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tourbot)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2001, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-british-language-question/49360/6 "2001-01-10T20:06:50Z")
Now that you’ve brought it up, both elevator and lift seem like misleading terms to me. I mean, you can use them to go down too. ---
**Author:** ![AWB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bb73d2/32.png) [@AWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AWB)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2001, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-british-language-question/49360/7 "2001-01-10T20:19:57Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by ianzin \* > \*\*We call them escalators. > > Some buildings over here also feature what is called a ‘paternoster’. Performs the same function as an elevator/lift, but there are no doors. Consists of a continuous ‘chain’ of elevator-type boxes running the full height of the building. The chain is cnstantly moving, so each ‘box’ moves up, then across to the down side, down, then across to the up side. Are these things much seen over there? \*\* I’ve sometimes thought of something like the paternoster, but like Stella, thought they would be potentially dangerous. (In DC, we still have idiots who miss the “rumble strips” 2 feet before the train tracks and fall in front of Metro trains.) I’ve never seen anything like them outside of a toy garage for my Matchbox cars. Slight aside: doing a double-translation: “Lifts” in American-English are shoes designed to make people taller without looking like they have high heels, or similarly: inserts into regular shoes to give people more height. So, what are these called in Britain? 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![hardhead365](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/71c47a/32.png) [@hardhead365](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hardhead365)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2001, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-british-language-question/49360/8 "2001-01-10T20:29:13Z")
I’ve never seen a paternoster, but we have something similar called a manlift, which consists of a vertical conveyor belt with a set of steps and handles. They are found mainly in grain elevators where you may have a large vertical distance to travel with very few floors. Also very dangerous to use if you aren’t paying attention, going over the top is definatley over the top 😃 ---
**Author:** ![London\_Calling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@London\_Calling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/London_Calling)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2001, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-british-language-question/49360/9 "2001-01-10T20:45:50Z")
On question one, the lift/ elevator thing: Yes, what you term ‘elevator’ we call ‘lift’, while ‘moving staircase’ is ‘elevator’ to us (although it sometimes feels uncomfortable to use it in conversation, IMHO). As for the second, shoe ‘lifts’, all I can think of is ‘soles’. Women have heels, guys have soles. Not nice to get either caught in the moving staircase while carrying lumps of aluminium. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2001, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-british-language-question/49360/10 "2001-01-10T22:03:52Z")
> [@](#): > > _Originally posted by Stella_Fantasia \* > \*\*…what an odd name for such a device!! Wonder what the etymology is on that one…are they as dangerous as I think they are, such that you say an Our Father before you get on? \*\* Hehe…I don’t know for certain, having only just heard of them from this thread, but they may have something to do with the “chain of cars” concept. I think the British use “paternoster” to refer to a rosary, with its chain of beads. This would transfer fairly directly to the chain of cars on this type of elevator. Can anyone on the far shore confirm or shoot down this idea? ---
**Author:** ![ianzin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/ed655f/32.png) [@ianzin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ianzin)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2001, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-british-language-question/49360/11 "2001-01-12T19:50:12Z")
> [@](#): > > _Originally posted by Stella_Fantasia \* > **No doors? Isn’t that dangerous?** No, because there is nothing to fall into. Let me have one more go at trying to describe one of these things (made a rod for my own back here, didn’t I?). Take a tall building. Build two elevator shafts in it. Completely fill both with elevator cars, stacked one on top of the other. No gaps - the floor of one sits directly on top of the roof of the next. All the cars are attached to some sort of gee-whizz moving equipment so they all move in sync, forming a giant chain moving clockwise. At the top and bottom there’s some more clever kit that shifts a car sideways - from the UP stack to the DOWN stack or vice-versa. The whole thing is moving continuously, at a pace which is slow enough for you to just walk on and off without needing the reflexes of a gazelle, but quick enough to look useful. AISB, there are no doors on each floor - you just see this procession of cars going up (or down) and step into the first one that has room for you. Why are they called ‘Paternoster’? Some good speculation on ths thread, but I don’t know and was never able to find out. Why install one instead of conventional elevators? I was told that the running costs work out at about the same. Apparently, the main ‘pro’ points are that they are safer, and better for spreading out the demand in buildings where a lot of people want to all move around at the same times. The one I first encountered was in the Arts Building at Sheffield University, where every hour or two there was this mad rush of people all trying to get from one class to the next in a 19 storey building. Best fun #1: it’s actually safe to stay in the car while it gets shunted across from one stack to the other, albeit slightly unnerving since this happens in a dark, unlit portion of the mechanism and makes a rather awful clanking sound. It used to be fun kidding neophytes that the cars get inverted as they go ‘over the top’ , and demonstrating this by going up one side, screaming as if on a funfair ride, then doing a handstand before you re-appear on the other side. Best fun#2: there is a safety feature for emergencies. Each ‘doorway’ has a tripwire or taut cord running across the top edge - just yank this and the whole system freezes to a halt. It then goes into a sort of auto safety cycle, and after 10 minutes it re-starts. So imagine a line of people waiting to use the Paternoster at a busy time, and you know there are some neophytes at the front who haven’t had much time to get used to it. We used to step out of line, address the poor victims at the front and shout “C’mon! Jeez - we’ll be here all day! Just pull the bloody cord and get on!!”. The embarassed newbie duly reaches forward, yanks the cord and bingo! - the whole system grinds to a halt. Hugely embarassing to the victim. Extremely dumb and anti-social, yes, but it made us laugh at the time. ---
**Author:** ![Nukeman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce7236/32.png) [@Nukeman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nukeman)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2001, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-british-language-question/49360/12 "2001-01-12T20:16:42Z")
I think I know why its called a paternoster. I know that pater noster means ‘our father’ in latin, as in the Catholic thing ‘Pater Noster, qui es in coelis’ which roughly means ‘our father, who lives in Heaven’ so it must therefore be a reference to going up towards heaven. ---
**Author:** ![Greg\_Charles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/839c29/32.png) [@Greg\_Charles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greg_Charles)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2001, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-british-language-question/49360/13 "2001-01-12T21:08:54Z")
I like the rosary bead theory for “paternoster” better than the going up towards heaven theory. From the descriptions, they really would look a lot like rosary bead as you were saying “Our Fathers”. I’m still confused about how these things could be safer than regular elevators. If there are no doors, then people forgetting to keep their “hands inside the paternoster at all times” would get horribly mangled as the device passed between floors, wouldn’t they? I guarantee that would be happening constantly in the U.S. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Bredin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/96bed5/32.png) [@John\_Bredin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Bredin)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2001, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-british-language-question/49360/14 "2001-01-12T21:34:36Z")
“I’m still confused about how these things could be safer than regular elevators.” No empty elevator shaft for a person or elevator car to plummet down. What’s below your car is another car. ---
**Author:** ![TheThill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/35a633/32.png) [@TheThill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheThill)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2001, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-british-language-question/49360/15 "2001-01-12T21:46:17Z")
I always thought that it was called a paternoster because you were supposed to pray for your safety (probably from my own reaction the first time I went on one.) But the rosary explanation is nice, too. ---
**Author:** ![ianzin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/ed655f/32.png) [@ianzin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ianzin)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2001, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-british-language-question/49360/16 "2001-01-13T20:50:36Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Greg Charles \* > **If there are no doors, then people forgetting to keep their “hands inside the paternoster at all times” would get horribly mangled as the device passed between floors, wouldn’t they?** I can well understand you might think so, until you actually see one in action. Yes, you are supposed to stay inside the car, so you don’t make contact with the floors as you pass them. But the thing moves sufficiently slowly that if you accidentally DID stick your arm out (or anything else), and it knocked against the floor level as you go past, it wouldn’t hurt. Done this MANY times myself. The top of the car is well above head height, so you’d really have to TRY to get your hand or arm jammed in between the ceiling of the car (going in one direction) and the passing foor level (going in the other). This is obviously not recommended, but if you did it you still wouldn’t come to any serious harm. First, because of the tripwire safety thing I mentioned above, which is along the top of the car, and secondly because the drive mechanism is sensitive to any kind of resistance or obstruction, and if there is any it just stops moving. Like I said before, the speed of the thing is very well-calibrated: fast enough to be useful, slow enough to be easy to use and not dangerous. As with anything else, if you really are idiotic and determined enough, you could probably find some way to injure yourself on one of these things. But in three years at the afore-mentioned university, where the PN was used by thousands of people every day, I heard of no incidents of anyone coming to any harm. ---
**Author:** ![Road\_Rash](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a8b319/32.png) [@Road\_Rash](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Road_Rash)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2001, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-british-language-question/49360/17 "2001-01-13T22:46:52Z")
[QUOTE] \*Originally posted by AWB \* \*\* > [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by ianzin \* > \*\*We call them escalators. > > Slight aside: doing a double-translation: “Lifts” in American-English are shoes designed to make people taller without looking like they have high heels, or similarly: inserts into regular shoes to give people more height. So, what are these called in Britain? 🙂 \*\* Lifts in American-English also refer to what lifts or lower items on the back of trucks, or lorries for your brits. ---
**Author:** ![ignatzmouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b2d939/32.png) [@ignatzmouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ignatzmouse)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2001, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-british-language-question/49360/18 "2001-01-14T01:50:13Z")
Given the previous posts, this may sound like a really stupid questions, but are the paternosters currently operating in Britain? I ask because I read an article about seven years ago that claimed that the last paternoster was being dimantled. ---
**Author:** ![Yeah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/dbc845/32.png) [@Yeah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yeah)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2001, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-british-language-question/49360/19 "2001-01-14T04:16:04Z")
“Given the previous posts, this may sound like a really stupid questions, but are the paternosters currently operating in Britain? I ask because I read an article about seven years ago that claimed that the last paternoster was being dimantled.” It’s not a stupid question. It’s my question too. (Although I ask it becuase I read an article some years ago saying that there were only a few paternosters left in Germany and I’m extrapolating to the U.K.) ---
**Author:** ![unnameable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ad7895/32.png) [@unnameable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/unnameable)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2001, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-british-language-question/49360/20 "2001-01-14T14:13:10Z")
The Concise Oxford Dictionary favours the “rosary” etymology for paternoster. A rosary is a string of beads that help you keep count if you want to say twenty “Our Father” prayers. Saves you going to hell for only saying nineteen I guess. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/american-british-language-question/49360.md?page=2)