sconce
noun
[ skɒns ]
• a candle holder that is attached to a wall with an ornamental bracket.
• "a wall sconce"
Origin:
late Middle English (originally denoting a portable lantern with a screen to protect the flame): shortening of Old French esconse ‘lantern’, or from medieval Latin sconsa, from Latin absconsa (laterna) ‘dark (lantern)’ (i.e. a lantern with a device for concealing the light), from abscondere ‘to hide’.
sconce
noun
• a small fort or earthwork defending a ford, pass, or castle gate.
Origin:
late Middle English: from Dutch schans ‘brushwood’, from Middle High German schanze . The earliest recorded sense ‘screen, interior partition’ derives perhaps from sconce1; the later senses date from the late 16th century.
