echelon

Definition

A level or rank in an organization, profession, or society.

Etymology

Borrowed from French échelon (“rung; echelon”), from échelle (“ladder”) + -on (diminutive suffix). Échelle is derived from Latin scāla (“ladder”), from scandō (“to ascend, climb”), from Proto-Indo-European *skend- (“to jump”).

Example Sentences

• "Other important functions performed by the GP [general practitioner] are those of referring patients to other (health) care facilities and acting as contact person for other providers of aid, both for other facilities in first echelon care and with respect to second echelon care (outpatient care and treatment in hospital)."
• "Officials in China are divided into three echelons, or generations. The first echelon joined the Communist Party in the 1920s, soon after the party was founded. […] The second echelon joined the Communist Party before the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949. The party was then still struggling, and many of the second echelon died during the wars. They were again true patriots. The third echelon joined the Communist Party after the founding of the People's Republic."
• "Still in the hood and I still sip tea When I go in, I'ma go for the win On point like syringe and it's like that Living life full of sin, gotta cup full of Hen' Put my tears in a pen and I write back Ice pack cause' my heart lost I'm so cold that I Jack Frost I'm 'bout be on the upper echelon Niggas gonna hate on the man that I become"

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