Meanings
plural lamplighters
- historicalA person employed to light streetlights at dusk and snuff them at dawn.
1,000 crossing-sweepers; another thousand chimney-sweeps, and the same number of turncocks and lamp-lighters;
1851, Henry Mayhew, “Costermongers”, in London Labour and the London Poor1 more example
I did the hurdles over two or three garden-walls, but so did the flyer who was on my tracks, and he drove me back into the straight and down to High Street like any lamplighter.
1905, E. W. Hornung, A Thief in the Night - historicalAny device or contrivance for lighting lamps, such as a length of paper to be set alight at one end.
[…] and finally, laughing and all tired out, they stopped to rest and to think of some other game. They played “Buz” till they were rested, and then “Genteel Lady,” where every time a little girl made a mistake she had to have a lamplighter stuck in her hair.
1876, Ballou's Monthly Magazine, volume 44, page 590
Origin
- Ancient Greekλᾰ́μπω (lắmpō)
- Ancient Greekλᾰμπᾰ́ς (lămpắs)
- Medieval Greekλαμπάδα (lampáda)
- Late Latinlampada
- Old Frenchlampe
- Middle Englishlaumpe
- Englishlamp
- Englishlighter
- Englishlamplighter
Translations
Catalan fanaler, fanalera
- fanalera person employed to light streetlights
- fanaleraa person employed to light streetlights
French allumeur de réverbères, falotier
- allumeur de réverbèresa person employed to light streetlights
- falotiera person employed to light streetlights
German Laternenanzünder
- Laternenanzündera person employed to light streetlights
Hungarian lámpagyújtogató
- lámpagyújtogatóa person employed to light streetlights
Italian lampionaio
- lampionaioa person employed to light streetlights
Polish latarnik
- latarnika person employed to light streetlights
Spanish farolero
- faroleroa person employed to light streetlights
Ukrainian ліхта́рник
- ліхта́рник (lixtárnyk)a person employed to light streetlights
Cite this entry
lamplighter. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/lamplighter
“lamplighter.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/lamplighter. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “lamplighter,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/lamplighter.
Source: lamplighter on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.