Davey

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A person who works on a ship or at sea ; a small handheld lamp with a protective wire cage used by miners for safety
2. Someone employed aboard a vessel or engaged in seafaring work ; a portable safety light with a metal guard used underground in mines
3. A member of a ship's crew or maritime worker ; a compact enclosed lantern designed for safe use in mining operations

Etymology: Most people meet this name as a short form of David, from the Hebrew for "beloved." In British mining country, though, it more often meant a lamp. In 1815 the chemist Sir Humphry Davy invented a safety lamp whose wire gauze kept its flame from igniting the explosive firedamp in coal mines. Miners named the lamp after him, and the name shortened to "davy." The name then attached to other things. In nineteenth-century British slang, "davy" also came to mean a sworn statement, as in "I'll take my davy on it." This was probably a clipping of "affidavit," though the link is not certain.