chandelier

Etymology

It is borrowed from French chandelier (“candlestick, candle-holder”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} from chandelle (“candle”),^[5][7][8][9] which is from Latin candēla (“candle”), from candeō (“to be white, glisten”).^[8] Klein and the American Heritage Dictionary trace the French noun to Vulgar Latin *candēlārium, an alteration of candēlābrum,^[6][10] and Merriam-Webster to a modification of the Latin word.^[4] Middle English already had chaundeler, a candlestick, from Old French,^[11][10][12] which the Anglo-Norman Dictionary records from about 1150 as a candlestick or candle-holder;^[13] Barnhart and Etymonline take the modern word as the same one, respelled in the French fashion,^[14][12] but the OED treats it as a new borrowing from French.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

In military use, a wooden frame filled with fascines to shelter sappers: 1664, in Gerbier's Counsel to Builders.^[2][5][7] The Middle English chaundeler, a candlestick or chandelier, is recorded from before 1382, in the Wycliffite Bible.^[11][14]

Semantic evolution

Etymonline notes that the word first meant a candlestick and then a cluster of candlesticks,^[12] that in 17th-century English the French spelling was used for the military frame, and that a distinction was later made between the standing candelabrum and the hanging chandelier.^[12] The sense of an ornamental branched frame for several lights hung from a ceiling is recorded from 1736, in Stukeley.^[2][12][4] Johnson (1755) defined it simply as "a branch for candles".^[15] In New Zealand prison slang it is rhyming slang for an ear,^[16] and in South Africa it named the chandelier lily, from the shape of the plant.^[17]

Timeline

• before 1382 – Middle English chaundeler, a candlestick.^[11][14]
• 1664 – a wooden frame filled with fascines, in sapping.^[2]
• 1736 – a branched hanging support for several lights.^[2][12][4]
• 1818 – the chandelier lily, in South Africa.^[17]
• 1982 – an ear, in New Zealand prison slang.^[16]

Meanings

Noun

1. An ornamental hanging light with branches holding several bulbs or, originally, candles: A crystal chandelier lit the ballroom.^[3][4][2]
2. (military, historical) A wooden frame filled with fascines, used to shelter sappers.^[2][5][7]

Word family

• chandeliered

Related words

• candela
• candelabrum
• candid
• candidate
• candle
• candlepower
• candlestick
• chandler
• chandlery
• gasolier

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
4. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
11. ^ 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)
12. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
13. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
14. ^ a b c Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
15. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
16. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
17. ^ a b A Dictionary of South African English on Historical Principles, Dictionary Unit for South African English, https://dsae.co.za