Where does “Candlemas” come from?
Candlemas comes from Middle English Candelmasse, a compound of candel (from Latin candela, "light") and masse (from Latin missa, originally "dismissal").
Candlemas (English): The festival in the Christian year celebrated on...
Definitions
- The festival in the Christian year celebrated on...
Ancestry of “Candlemas”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | English | candle | A light source consisting of a wick embedded in a... |
| 2 | Middle English | candel | candle |
| 3 | Old English | candel | candle |
| 4 | Latin | candēla | A light made of wax or tallow; tallow candle or taper |
| 5 | Latin | candeō | to be brilliant, glittering or illuminated; to shine, glitter, glisten; gleam white |
| 6 | Proto-Italic | kandēō | — |
| 7 | Proto-Indo-European | kand- | to shine, glow |