Scone and Sconce
October 14th 2009 08:29
Isn't it funny how some words survive that seem a little odd? Sconce is an example. It's a word used in relation to candles or lamps, and merely means a kind of holder. In fact if the examples on the Net are anything to go by candle sconces can mean a great variety of things of many varied designs. Check out the example in the picture, for instance.
It comes with the name Bigso Leaf Wall Sconce. Bigso is just as odd a word as sconce.
I always think 'sconce' is something to do with scones - those wonderful doughy things that are great with lashings of butter on them, and cheese mixed in them, or even dates (though dates come a good second to cheese in my opinion).
Of course there's a Wikipedia entry for Sconce - in fact there's three. Sconce can mean a fortification (from which presumably we get the word, ensconced - someone who's stuck inside their castle and won't come out no matter how much rubbish we throw at his walls). Or it can mean the light fitting we know so well. Or it can be something totally unrelated to those two: 'imposing a penalty in the form of a drink.' That meaning comes from an Oxford University habit of making people drink a tankard of ale (or some equivalent) for some breach of etiquette. How did we get to use the word in that way? I'm sure there's a connection, but I don't immediately see it.
As the Wikipedia entry on the light fitting says: The etymology of sconce is from the Latin absconsus, and the French esconce. It is a word of many meanings, mostly signifying a covering or protection, or, by extension, that which is covered or protected. Okay, that has some relevance to the fortress, and even to the light fitting, but the leap to sconcing is a bit out of left field. On the other hand, to scone someone is to hit them in some way - perhaps it started because someone literally threw a scone at someone else. Who knows how words get where they go?
I always think 'sconce' is something to do with scones - those wonderful doughy things that are great with lashings of butter on them, and cheese mixed in them, or even dates (though dates come a good second to cheese in my opinion).
Of course there's a Wikipedia entry for Sconce - in fact there's three. Sconce can mean a fortification (from which presumably we get the word, ensconced - someone who's stuck inside their castle and won't come out no matter how much rubbish we throw at his walls). Or it can mean the light fitting we know so well. Or it can be something totally unrelated to those two: 'imposing a penalty in the form of a drink.' That meaning comes from an Oxford University habit of making people drink a tankard of ale (or some equivalent) for some breach of etiquette. How did we get to use the word in that way? I'm sure there's a connection, but I don't immediately see it.
As the Wikipedia entry on the light fitting says: The etymology of sconce is from the Latin absconsus, and the French esconce. It is a word of many meanings, mostly signifying a covering or protection, or, by extension, that which is covered or protected. Okay, that has some relevance to the fortress, and even to the light fitting, but the leap to sconcing is a bit out of left field. On the other hand, to scone someone is to hit them in some way - perhaps it started because someone literally threw a scone at someone else. Who knows how words get where they go?
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