sconce

English

Pronunciation

Etymology 1

From Middle English sconce, sconse (“candlestick or lantern (with screen)”), from Old French esconse (“lantern”), from Latin absconsus (“hidden”), perfect passive participle of abscondō (“hide”).[1][2] Cognate with abscond.

Noun

sconce (plural sconces)

  1. A fixture for a light, which holds it and provides a screen against wind or against a naked flame or lightbulb.
    1. A candlestick (holder for a candle, especially a circular tube, with a brim, into which a candle is inserted), either with a handle for carrying, or with a bracket for attaching to a wall.
      • 1858, Mrs. Oliphant, Laird of Norlaw, I. v. 55:
        Taking the candle […] she stood with the little flat brass sconce in her hand.
      • 1859, W. Collins, Queen of Hearts, published 1875, page 41:
        This strange scene was lightd up by candles in high and havy brass sconces.
Translations

Etymology 2

Unclear. Perhaps a use of sconce (“light fixture”) or sconce (“fortification”), but seemingly older than the latter

Noun

sconce (plural sconces)

  1. A head or a skull.
    • c. 1594 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Comedie of Errors”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii], page 87, column 1:
      Novv as I am a Chriſtian anſvver me, / In vvhat ſafe place you haue beſtovv'd my monie; / Or I ſhall breake that merrie ſconce of yours / That ſtands on tricks, vvhen I am vndiſpos'd: / VVhere is the thouſand Markes thou hadſt of me?
    • c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i]:
      Why does he suffer this rude knave now, to knock him about the sconce with a dirty shovel, and will not tell him of his action of battery?
    • 1818, John Keats, On Some Skulls in Beauly Abbey, near Inverness:
      Long time this sconce a helmet wore, / But sickness smites the conscience sore; / He broke his sword, and hither bore / His gear and plunder, / Took to the cowl,—then rav’d and swore / At his damn’d blunder!
    • 1824, Galignani's magazine and Paris monthly review, page 129:
      […] roll the rider and his horse in the dust, or endeavour to drive their lance through the bars of the visor into the bull's eye of their friend's sconce, […]
    • 1867, Benjamin Brierley, Marlocks of Merriton, page 56:
      […] ; an old blue jacket, that at one time had been a coat, looped over a red plush “singlet” of perhaps twenty or even forty years' wear : his almost hairless sconce bared to the sun, from which it had received an imperishable coating of tan, he was an object that few would pass without hailing with observations, […] he wiped his shining sconce [...] and raised his visor […]
  2. A poll tax; a mulct or fine.
    • 2011, Allan Mallinson, On His Majesty's Service:
      I'll gladly pay a sconce
  3. (Oxford University slang) An act of sconcing; very similar to a fine at Cambridge University, though a sconce is the act of issuing a penalty rather than the penalty itself.
    Synonym: (Oxford University slang, uncommon) sconcing.
    • 2014 February 25, James Burns, “Fishing for Sconces”, in funnywomen.com‎ (blog), archived from the original on 27 January 2022:
      The table opposite started singing "shit sconce, shit scone[sic], shit sconce, shit sconce" […]

Verb

sconce (third-person singular simple present sconces, present participle sconcing, simple past and past participle sconced)

  1. (obsolete) To impose a fine, a forfeit, or a mulct.
    • 1898, Rev. A. Clark, University of Oxford, College Histories: Lincoln, page 73:
      The Rector sconced him in the buttery-book, but Webberly “wiped it off, with irreverent and unbeseeming language.” For this, he had to apologise, and go without his commons for three months.
  2. (Oxford University slang) During a meal or as part of a drinking game, to announce some (usually outrageous) deed such that anyone who has done it must drink; similar to I have never; commonly associated with crewdates; very similar to fining at Cambridge University.
    I sconce anyone who has ever…

Etymology 3

Borrowed from Middle Dutch schans, cognate with German Schanze.[2]

Alternative forms

Noun

sconce (plural sconces)

  1. A type of small fort or other fortification, especially as built to defend a pass or ford.
  2. (obsolete) A hut for protection and shelter; a stall.
  3. (architecture) A squinch.
  4. A fragment of a floe of ice.
    • 1856, Elisha Kent Kane, Arctic Explorations:
      Just then, a broad sconce-piece or low water-washed berg came driving up from the southward. The thought flashed upon me of one of our escapes in Melville Bay; and as the sconce moved rapidly close alongside us, McGary managed to plant an anchor on its slope and hold on to it by a whale-line.
  5. A fixed seat or shelf.
Derived terms

Verb

sconce (third-person singular simple present sconces, present participle sconcing, simple past and past participle sconced)

  1. (obsolete) to shut within a sconce; to imprison.

References
  1. Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition
  2. ensconce The Lexiteria & alphaDictionary

Further reading

Italian

Alternative forms

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): /ˈskon.t͡ʃe/
  • Rhymes: -ontʃe
  • Hyphenation: scón‧ce

Adjective

sconce

  1. feminine plural of sconcio
This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.