Footlamp

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A strip of lights set along the front edge of a theatre stage, once used to illuminate the performers from below
2. A row of stage lamps placed at the forward edge of a theatre stage to light the actors from the front
3. Historically, a line of lamps fixed along the lip of a stage floor to throw light up onto the performers

Etymology: Footlights are the row of lamps set along the front edge of a theatre stage, and the "footlamp" is the same device under another name. The "foot" refers to the floor of the stage, the lowest point of the performing space, so the lamps sit at the feet of the actors. Stage lighting in the 17th and 18th centuries relied on candles and oil lamps placed in just this position, and the arrangement was called footlights long before the single-lamp form was singled out. The word is a plain English compound, built from "foot" and "lamp," with no foreign root behind it. Its exact date of first use is uncertain, so it is safest to say it belongs to the period when theatres lit their stages with open flame, and that the everyday term "footlights" has been the more common of the two.

Synonyms: footlight