Etymology

lucifer match

Today it means: A sulfur friction match whose head is treated with equal parts antimony trisulfide and potassium chlorate. Full definition →

Latin lucifer
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The story

  1. Latin · derived fromlucifer“bringer of light”
  2. English todaylucifer match

From Latin lucifer (“bringer of light”), originally a brand name for Isaac Holden's match formulation as marketed by Samuel Jones from 1829 or 1830 but soon transferred to the era's friction matches generally.

Words from the same roots

Latinlucifer all →

luciferluciferous

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.