Everyday LifeGreek → English
Lamp
/læmp/noun
A device that gives out light, whether by burning fuel or by electricity.
The Greek roots
λαμπάς
lampás
torch, light
Literally: “shining thing, torch”
Follow a root:λαμπάς1 word
The story of the word
λαμπάς was a torch, not a lamp: the Athenians ran λαμπαδηδρομία, relay races with burning torches, at the Panathenaia. Latin lampas and Old French lampe carried it into English by the thirteenth century, by which time it meant a vessel of oil with a wick. Underneath sits the verb λάμπω, to shine, which also lights the lantern by way of λαμπτήρ.
- How it travelled
- Ancient Greek → Latin → Old French → English
- First recorded
- 13th century
The same roots elsewhere
Other languages reached for exactly the same Greek pieces.
Same family
lanternlamplight
In a sentence
He read by one lamp with the rest of the house dark.