fairy lights

English

Etymology

From the small battery-powered incandescent lights, manufactured by the Swan United Electric Light Company, that were worn by fairy characters in Gilbert and Sullivan's opera Iolanthe in its opening season in 1882.

Noun

1. (UK) Small electric lights on a strand which are used decoratively, especially on Christmas trees.
   • 2010, Trisha Ashley, Twelve Days of Christmas, HarperCollins, →ISBN, unnumbered page:

     I managed to put quite a lot of small baubles on the top of the tree that way and helped drape the long string of fairy lights around it, […]

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:fairy lights.

Synonyms

• Christmas lights

Translations

lights

• Kyrgyz: кытай панары (ky) (kıtay panarı)
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• Scottish Gaelic: solais Nollaige m pl