Gaslamps

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Old-fashioned street lights that burned gas through a mantle, often seen lining city roads in the nineteenth century
2. Lanterns powered by flammable coal gas, once common on the streets and in the squares of Victorian towns and cities
3. Lamp posts that produced light from a gas flame, a common form of urban lighting before electricity replaced them

Etymology: "Gaslamps" is simply the plural of "gaslamp," so its history belongs to the lamp itself. A gaslamp is a street lamp or lantern that burns coal gas, a fuel piped to the lamp through underground mains rather than carried in a tank. The word is a plain compound of "gas" and "lamp," and it describes exactly what it names: a lamp lit by gas. The plural form simply adds the regular "-s" to mark more than one lamp, which is how the word is used when a whole street or city is described as lined with them.

Synonyms: gaslight, street lamp, lamppost