CS Knowledge Base

A cigarette lighter (etymology 1 sense 2)

A c. 1925 photograph of two lighters (etymology 2, noun sense 1) beside a cargo ship off Java in the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia).

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈlaɪ.tə/, (Standard Southern British) [ˈlɑj-]

  • Audio (Standard Southern British):

    (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈlaɪ.təɹ/, [ˈɫaɪ̯.ɾɚ]

  • (file)

  • (file)

• (Australia, New Zealand) IPA^(key): /ˈlɑɪ.tə/, [ˈlɑ̟e̯.ɾə]
• (Scotland) IPA^(key): /ˈlʌɪ.təɾ/
• (General South African) IPA^(key): /ˈlaɪ.tə/, /ˈlaː.tə/
• (South Asia) IPA^(key): /ˈlaːj.ʈəʳ/
• Rhymes: -aɪtə(ɹ)
• Hyphenation: light‧er

From light (“to set fire to (something), ignite”, verb) + -er (suffix forming agent nouns).^[1] Light is derived from Middle English lighten, lihten (“to emit light, shine; of fire: to blaze, burn; to set fire to; etc.”),^[2] from Old English līehtan (West Saxon), līhtan (“to give light, illuminate, shine”) (Anglian, Late West Saxon),^[3] from Proto-West Germanic *liuhtijan (“to illuminate, shine”), from Proto-Germanic *liuhtijaną (“to give light, shine”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *lewk- (“bright; to shine; to see”).^[4]

lighter (plural lighters)

1. A person who lights (“sets fire to or ignites”) a thing.

   a lighter of lamps

3. An electrical or mechanical device, usually handheld and reusable, used to light things; especially, a device which creates a small flame to light cigarettes, stoves, etc.

   Synonym: (dated) briquet

   Cigarette in mouth, he clutched his pockets in search of a lighter.

   • 1913, Rudyard Kipling, “The Edge of the Evening”, in A Diversity of Creatures, London: Macmillan and Co., […], published 1917, →OCLC, page 274:

     He smelt of rare soap and cigarettes—such cigarettes as he handed me from a golden box with an automatic lighter.

4. (archaic) A piece of flammable material which is set on fire and used to light something else; especially, a piece of folded or twisted paper used in this way to light a pipe.

   Coordinate terms: spill, taper

   • 1856, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, “Eighth Book”, in Aurora Leigh, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1857, →OCLC, page 330:

     Yet I'm sorry, too, / To lose this famous letter, which Sir Blaise / Has twisted to a lighter absently / To fire some holy taper with: […]

• lighter fluid
• lighter screw
• lump the lighter

The noun is derived from Late Middle English lighter, lightere, lyghtere (“type of barge or tender for transporting cargo”),^[5] from lighten (“to reduce the weight of, lighten; to alight, dismount; to descend; etc.”)^[6] + -er, -ere (suffix forming agent nouns).^[7] Lighten is from Old English līehtan (West Saxon), līhtan (“to reduce the weight of, lighten; to alight, dismount; to descend”) (Anglian, Late West Saxon),^[8] from Proto-West Germanic *lį̄htijan (“to reduce the weight of, lighten”), from Proto-Germanic *linhtijaną (“to reduce the weight of”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₁lengʷʰ- (“lightweight; to move lightly or effortlessly”). By surface analysis, light (“to lighten; to unload”, verb) +‎ -er (suffix forming agent nouns).^[9]

The verb is derived from the noun.^[10]

lighter (plural lighters)

2. (nautical) A boat, usually a flat-bottomed barge, for carrying loads across short distances, especially one for loading and unloading a larger ship, and to transport cargo between such a ship and a wharf.
   • 1634, William Wood, “Of The Severall Plantations in Particular”, in New Englands Prospect. A True, Lively, and Experimentall Description of that Part of America, Commonly Called New England; […], London: […] Tho[mas] Cotes, for Iohn Bellamie, […], →OCLC, 2nd part (Of the Indians, […]), page 66:

     Theſe flatts make it unnavigable for ſhippes, yet at high vvater great Boates, Loiters, and Pinnaces of 20, and 30 tun, may ſaile up to the plantation, but they neede have a skilfull Pilote, becauſe of many dangerous rockes and foaming breakers, that lye at the mouth of that Bay.

   • 1722 March, H[enry] F[oe] [pseudonym; Daniel Defoe], A Journal of the Plague Year: […], London: […] E[lizabeth] Nutt […]; J. Roberts […]; A. Dodd […]; and J. Graves […], →OCLC, page 112:

     [T]he River vvas in a manner vvithout Boats, and all or moſt part of the VVatermen, Lightermen, Boat-builders, and Lighter-builders in like manner idle, and laid by.

   • 1776 March 9, Adam Smith, “Of the Expences of the Sovereign or Commonwealth”, in An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. […], volume II, London: […] W[illiam] Strahan; and T[homas] Cadell, […], →OCLC, book V (Of the Revenue of the Sovereign or Commonwealth), part III (Of the Expence of Publick Works and Publick Institutions, article I (Of the Publick Works and Institutions for Facilitating the Commerce of the Society), pages 330–331:

     The depth and the ſupply of vvater for a navigable canal muſt be proportioned to the number and tunnage of the lighters vvhich are likely to carry goods upon it; the extent of a harbour to the number of the ſhipping vvhich are likely to take ſhelter in it.

   • 1945 January–February, T. F. Cameron, “Dock Working”, in The Railway Magazine, London: Tothill Press, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 9:

     It is, of course, possible to work only to or from lighters in this way, and such working is not very general in this country, although a certain amount of such overside work is carried on in enclosed docks.

• lighterage
• lighterful
• lighterman
• sandlighter

lighter (third-person singular simple present lighters, present participle lightering, simple past and past participle lightered) (nautical)

1. (transitive)
   1. To load or unload, or transfer, (cargo; or occasionally passengers) using a lighter (etymology 2, noun sense 1) or other marine vessel.

      Hypernym: lighten

      • 1898 December 20 (date delivered), William R[ufus] Shafter, “Testimony of Maj. Gen. William R. Shafter”, in Report of the Commission Appointed by the President to Investigate the Conduct of the War Department in the War with Spain. […] (United States Senate, 56th Congress, 1st session; document no. 221), volume 7 (Testimony), Washington, D.C.: [United States] Government Printing Office, published 1900, →OCLC, page 3227:

        Troops and stores were lightered to the wharves inside the harbor by steamers Orizaba and Berkshire.

      • 1960 April, H[enry] P[atrick] White, “The Railways of Sierra Leone”, in The Railway Magazine, London: Tothill Press, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 233:

        Beyond the station an extension descends at 1 in 30, the steepest gradient on the line, to Government Wharf, where cargo is lightered to and from ships at anchor in the harbour.

   2. To transfer cargo or fuel from (a ship) to lighten it, in order to make it easier to refloat or to reduce its draft.

      Hypernym: lighten

      • 1991, John Keeble, quoting David Grimes, “Ghosts”, in Out of the Channel: The Ezxon Valdez Oil Spill in Prince William Sound, New York, N.Y.: HarperCollinsPublishers, →ISBN, page 254:

        We were trying to think up ways to clean up the oil. […] We sent for the supersuckers, and in the meantime they were lightering the ship [to remove the oil] and all the Exxon people were kind of white. You could see they were living right on the edge.

2. (intransitive) To load or unload, or transfer, cargo (or occasionally passengers) using a lighter or other marine vessel.
   • 1898 December 20 (date delivered), William R[ufus] Shafter, “Testimony of Maj. Gen. William R. Shafter”, in Report of the Commission Appointed by the President to Investigate the Conduct of the War Department in the War with Spain. […] (United States Senate, 56th Congress, 1st session; document no. 221), volume 7 (Testimony), Washington, D.C.: [United States] Government Printing Office, published 1900, →OCLC, page 3227:

     Troops lightered out to her [the USS Yale] when she was ordered to Montauk Point Aug. 19.

• lightering (noun)

From light (“pale”, adjective) + -er (suffix forming comparatives).

lighter

1. comparative form of light: more light

   I prefer a lighter shade of pink.

From light (“not heavy, weak”, adjective) + -er (suffix forming comparatives).

lighter

1. comparative form of light: more light

   What happened? You look ten pounds lighter!

   I wish I’d thrown a lighter punch; he’s out cold.

• lighter on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• lighter (barge) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• lighter (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

• relight

Unadapted borrowing from English lighter.

• IPA^(key): /lɑɪtɛ̝r/

lighter m (definite singular lighteren, indefinite plural lightere, definite plural lighterne)

2. A device used to light things, especially a reusable handheld device for creating fire to light cigarettes.

   Har du en lighter?

   Do you have a lighter?

Unadapted borrowing from English lighter.

• IPA^(key): /ˈlaiteɾ/ [ˈlai̯.t̪eɾ]
• Rhymes: -aiteɾ
• Syllabification: ligh‧ter

lighter m (plural lighters or lighteres)

1. (Panama, US, Puerto Rico, Philippines) lighter

   Synonyms: encendedor, mechero

• According to Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) prescriptions, unadapted foreign words should be written in italics in a text printed in roman type, and vice versa, and in quotation marks in a manuscript text or when italics are not available. In practice, this RAE prescription is not always followed.

• “lighter”, in Diccionario de americanismos [Dictionary of Americanisms] (in Spanish), Association of Academies of the Spanish Language [Spanish: Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española], 2010