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語源 1

From 中期英語 sconce, sconse (“candlestick or lantern (with screen)”), from Old French esconse (“lantern”), from Latin absconsus (“hidden”), perfect passive participle of abscondō (“hide”). Cognate with abscond.

名詞

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.
   • 1644 December 3 (Gregorian calendar), John Evelyn, “[Diary entry for 23 November 1644]”, in William Bray, editor, Memoirs, Illustrative of the Life and Writings of John Evelyn, […], 2nd edition, volume I, London: Henry Colburn, […]; and sold by John and Arthur Arch, […], published 1819, →OCLC:

     […] tapers put into lanterns or sconces of several-coloured, oiled paper, that the wind might not annoy them.

   • 1847, John Dryden, The Works of John Dryden in Verse and Prose, volume 1, Harper, The Beginning of the Second Book of Lucretius, page 183, line 28:

     Golden sconces hang not on the walls.

   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.

      • 1965, Attila Zohar, Kings Cross Black Magic, Sydney: Horwitz Publications, page 96:

        Also the candles flickering in the blood-red sconces are black and the body on the crucifix is that of a full-breasted woman.

関連する語

• abscond

語源 2

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

名詞

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, shit sconce, shit sconce" […]

動詞

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…

語源 3

Borrowed from Middle Dutch schans, cognate with German Schanze.

別の表記

• skonce

名詞

sconce (plural sconces)

1. A type of small fort or other fortification, especially as built to defend a pass or ford.
   • 1670, John Milton, “(please specify the page)”, in The History of Britain, that Part Especially now Call’d England. […], London: […] J[ohn] M[acock] for James Allestry, […] , →OCLC:

     No sconce or fortress of his raising was ever known either to have been forced, or yielded up, or quitted.

2. (obsolete) A hut for protection and shelter; a stall.
   • c. 1613–1616, Francis Beaumont, John Fletcher, “The Scornful Lady, a Comedy”, in Comedies and Tragedies […], London: […] Humphrey Robinson, […], and for Humphrey Moseley […], published 1679, →OCLC, Act V, scene iii:

     one that […] must raise a sconce by the highway and sell switches

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.

派生語

• ensconce

動詞

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.

参照

Further reading

• “sconce”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “sconce”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
• Douglas Harper (2001–2026), “sconce”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
• sconce (light fixture) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• sconce (fortification) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia