Gaslamp

Part of speech: noun, adjective

Definitions

1. An old-fashioned street or room lamp that burns illuminating gas through a mantle or wick to give light
2. A lighting fixture powered by a flame from coal gas, once common on city streets and in homes before electricity
3. A light source that burned gas from a pipe supply, typically set on a post or bracket to brighten a street or interior

Etymology: A gas lamp is a street or room lamp that burns illuminating gas, and the compound is simply "gas" plus "lamp," joined into one word in the closed spelling. Gas lighting arrived in English cities in the early nineteenth century, when coal gas was piped to streets and houses, and lamps that burned it became the everyday light of towns for the next hundred years or so. The word therefore describes a technology rather than a coinage with a dramatic backstory. The noun sense names the fixture itself, while the adjective sense, as in "gaslamp quarter," is used attributively to describe things associated with those lights, such as Victorian-era streets or districts preserved from that period. Because the compound is transparent, its meaning has stayed close to the literal parts, with the adjective extending it to places and styles marked by the old lighting.

Synonyms: gaslight