Chairlift

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A device designed for elevation that carries individuals or skiers upward on a slope via suspended seats from cables
2. A transportation system found in ski areas that moves passengers up hills using seats attached to a cable mechanism
3. A cable-driven system with suspended seats used to transport people uphill, commonly at ski resorts

Etymology: The chairlift is a plain compound: "chair" joined to "lift," with nothing hidden in either part. Its more interesting ancestor is "chair" itself, which travels a long way from a Greek seat. In ancient Greek, "hédra" meant a seat or base, and when joined with the preposition "katá" ("down") it formed "kăthédrā," a seat set down or sitting down. Latin borrowed this as "cathedra," meaning a chair of authority, which is why bishops' seats gave us the word "cathedral" in the sense of a church where the bishop's throne stands. From Latin, the word passed into Old French as "chaiere," and then into Middle English as "chayere," which became modern "chair." So the piece of furniture you sit on in a school classroom and the hanging seat carrying skiers up a mountain share a root that once named a formal seat of power. "Lift," in the sense of a device for raising things, is the English half of the compound, and the combined term describes a chair that is lifted up a slope on a cable.

Synonyms: gondola, lift, cable car, elevator, escalator