Etymologically
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lighthouse

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 31 October 2026 at 07:36. This address is a permanent link to this version.
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Pronunciation

  • /ˈlaɪthaʊs/[1]

Etymology

It is a compound from English light + house.[2][3][4][5][6] The OED compares the earlier firehouse and light tower in the same sense.[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A coastal tower or other structure with a strong light at the top, originally a beacon, to warn or guide ships: 1606, in a Mariners' Charter quoted in Brand's history of Newcastle.[2][7] Merriam-Webster dates the first known use to 1622 and Etymonline to the 1620s,[8][4] and Dictionary.com to 1655–65.[5]

Semantic evolution

The meaning has stayed close to the first one.[2][8] Johnson (1755) described a lighthouse as a high building with lights hung at the top to guide ships at sea, and quoted Arbuthnot, who used it beside the older word pharos.[6] Slang gave the word several figurative senses: a watch-house (about 1786), a large red nose or a man with one (1811), and in American tramps' slang of 1899 a lookout who knew every local detective by sight.[9]

Timeline

  • 1606 – a tower with a light to guide ships.[2]
  • 1622 – first known use, according to Merriam-Webster.[8]
  • c. 1786 – in slang, a watch-house.[9]
  • 1811 – in slang, a red, fiery nose.[9]
  • 1899 – in American slang, a lookout.[9]

Meanings

Noun

  1. A tower or other building on a coast or offshore with a powerful light at the top that warns or guides ships at sea: The old lighthouse on the point is now a museum.[8][10][2][11]

Word family

  • lighthouse tube

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  4. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  6. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  7. ^ Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
  8. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  9. ^ a b c d Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
  10. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  11. ^ Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press