lantern

English

Lantern

Etymology

Middle English (13th century), via Old French lanterne from Latin lanterna (“lantern”), itself a corruption of Ancient Greek λαμπτήρ (“torch”) (see lamp, λάμπω) by influence of Latin lucerna (“lamp”). The spelling lanthorn was current during the 16th to 19th centuries and originates with a folk etymology associating the word with the use of horn as translucent cover.

Alternative forms

• (archaic) lanthorn

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA: /ˈlæn.tən/
• (US) IPA: /ˈlæn.tɚn/

• Audio (US)

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Noun

lantern (plural lanterns)

1. A case of translucent or transparent material made to protect a flame, or light, used to illuminate its surroundings.

Translations

case of transparent material made to protect a flame, or light

Alutiiq: fanaʀuq Arabic: فانوس (ar) (faanuus) m. Chinese: Mandarin: 燈籠 (zh), 灯笼 (zh) (dēnglong), 燈 (zh), 灯 (zh) (dēng) Czech: lucerna (cs) f. Dutch: lantaarn (nl) m. Esperanto: lanterno (eo) Finnish: lyhty (fi) French: lanterne (fr) f. German: Laterne (de) f. Greek: φανάρι (el) (fanári), φαναράκι  (el) (fanaráki) Hebrew: פנס (he) (panás) m. Hungarian: lámpás (hu) Icelandic: lampi (is) m. Italian: lanterna  (it) f.

Japanese: 灯篭 (ja) (とうろう, tōrō) (also: 灯籠 (ja)), ランタン (ja) (rantan), (paper) 提灯 (ja) (ちょうちん, chōchin) Latin: lanterna (la) f., lampas (la) f. Malay: tanglung (ms), lentera (ms) Norwegian: lanterne (no) m. Persian: فانوس (fa) (fânus) Portuguese: lanterna (pt) f. Russian: фонарь (ru) (fonár’) m. Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: фѐњер (sh) m. Roman: fènjer (sh) m. Spanish: farol (es) m. Swahili: koroboi (sw) Swedish: lykta (sv) n. Walloon: lantiene (wa) f.

See also

• lamp
• torch