candelabrum

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin candēlābrum (“candlestick”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} from candēla (“candle”),^[2][3][7] which comes from candeō (“to be white, to glow”).^[8] Dictionary.com analyses the ending as -ābrum, a variant after stems with -l- of the instrument suffix -bulum.^[9] The word is a reborrowing, since Middle English had already taken it as chaundelabre, based on Old French chaundelabre and the Latin word.^[4][3][10] Old English had its own term for the object, candeltrēow (“candle-tree”).^[3][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

An ornamental stand for several candles or lamps: 1805 in Merriam-Webster's Unabridged,^[12] 1811 in Etymonline and Barnhart,^[3][4] and 1815, in the Edinburgh Review, in the OED.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Latin's plain "candlestick" became in English a word for something large, branched and ornate, close to a chandelier.^[2][12] The older chaundelabre had meant a candlestick or chandelier, and a Middle English version of Paul's Epistles (before 1425) used it for the Latin candelabra of the tabernacle.^[10] In the 19th century the word was also used of antiquity, of the stand that held up lamps (1834, in Bulwer-Lytton's Last Days of Pompeii) and of a candlestick (1876).^[2] The shape gave the name of the candelabrum tree, a tropical African tree of the genus Euphorbia, from 1834.^[2][5]

Timeline

• before 1400 – Middle English chaundelabre, a candlestick or chandelier.^[4][10]
• 1805 – an ornamental branched candlestick or lamp holder.^[12] Etymonline and Barnhart date it to 1811, and the OED to 1815.^[3][4][2]
• 1811 – the Latin plural candelabra used as a singular.^[12]
• 1834 – in ancient contexts, a stand supporting lamps;^[2] also in the names of trees with foliage of this shape.^[2]
• 1876 – in ancient contexts, an ornamental candlestick.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A large, usually ornamented branched holder for several candles or lamps: A silver candelabrum stood on the sideboard.^[13][12][9]
2. (ancient Greek and Roman history) A stand supporting lamps; an ornamental candlestick.^[2][3]
3. An ornate, often heavy standard supporting a light.^[12]
4. Short for candelabrum tree, a tropical African tree of the genus Euphorbia whose foliage has this shape.^[5][2]

Related words

• chandelier
• candela
• candid
• candidate
• candle
• chandler
• chandlery
• incandescent
• incense
• Candlemas

Usage notes

Candelabra is the Latin plural,^[3] and the standard forms remain singular candelabrum, plural candelabra.^[14] In practice candelabra is often treated as a singular with the plural candelabras,^[14][12] a use the Merriam-Webster Unabridged records from 1811.^[12]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
9. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
10. ^ a b c Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
11. ^ Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
12. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
13. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
14. ^ a b Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press