luminaire

Forms

luminaire m (plural luminaires)^[1] Old French plural luminaries (about 1120);^[2][3] Anglo-Norman luminare, luminer, luminarie.^[4]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ecclesiastical Latin lūmināre (“that which gives light, heavenly body”), an adjective formed from lūmen (“light”) and used as a noun.^[2][3][5][1] Christian Latin used it mostly in the plural lūmināria, which explains the early form luminaries.^[2][6][3] It is a doublet of lumière, which was inherited.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

It first appears, as the plural luminaries, in the Oxford Psalter in the first half of the 12th century, meaning the heavenly lights.^[2][3]

Semantic evolution

The first sense, “heavenly body”, survives only through biblical allusion, especially to the sun and the moon.^[3][6] From 1176, in Chrétien de Troyes's Cligès, the word named all the lights used to light a place,^[2] both in everyday use and in church, where le luminaire is the candles and lamps lit for a ceremony.^[3][7] In astrology the sun and moon were les luminaires.^[8] Like lumière, it had the figurative sense “eyes”, current in the 17th century among the précieux.^[3][9] In the early 20th century it came to mean any lighting device, and today a light fitting.^[9][7]

The derivative luminariste (1859) is a painter concerned with effects of light; in old theatre slang (1867) it was a lamplighter.^[2][3]

Timeline

• c. 1120 – Luminaries “heavenly lights” in the Oxford Psalter.^[2][3]
• c. 1170 – Used in the Livre des Rois for lamps among the Temple vessels.^[9][8]
• 1176 – Chrétien de Troyes uses it for the lights of a place.^[2]
• 1422 – Juvénal des Ursins describes the lights at the funeral of Charles VI.^[8]
• 1648 – Les luminaires “the eyes” in Scarron.^[9]
• 1859 – The derivative luminariste.^[2][3]
• early 20th century – Used for any lighting device.^[9][7]

Meanings

Noun

1. The candles, lamps and other lights used in a church for a religious ceremony, or one of them.^[7][9]
2. A light fixture, a lighting device: un magasin de luminaires.^[7][1][2]
3. (biblical, literary) A heavenly body that gives light, especially the sun or the moon.^[3][8]

Word family

• luminariste

Related words

• lumière
• luministe
• Latin lumen
• English luminary

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
5. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
6. ^ a b Bloch, Oscar; Wartburg, Walther von (1989), Dictionnaire étymologique de la langue française, 8th ed., Paris: Presses universitaires de France
7. ^ a b c d e Rey-Debove, Josette; Rey, Alain, eds. (2007), Le Petit Robert de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
8. ^ a b c d Littré, Émile (1873–1877), Dictionnaire de la langue française, 4 vols. and supplement, Paris: Hachette
9. ^ a b c d e f Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse