# sconce
## English
### Pronunciation

* (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /skɒns/
* (General American) IPA: /skɑns/
* Audio (US):(file)
* Rhymes: -ɒns

### 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”). Cognate with abscond.

#### Noun

sconce (plural sconces)
* 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.
** 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.

##### Related terms

* abscond

##### Translations
### Etymology 2

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

#### Noun

sconce (plural sconces)
* 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 […]
* A poll tax; a mulct or fine.
** 2011, Allan Mallinson, On His Majesty's Service:I'll gladly pay a sconce
* (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" […]

#### Verb

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

#### Alternative forms

* skonce

#### Noun

sconce (plural sconces)
* 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.
* (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
* (architecture) A squinch.
* 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.
* A fixed seat or shelf.

##### Derived terms

* ensconce

#### Verb

sconce (third-person singular simple present sconces, present participle sconcing, simple past and past participle sconced)
* (obsolete) to shut within a sconce; to imprison.

### References

* ↑ Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition
* 1 2 ensconce The Lexiteria & alphaDictionary

### Further reading

* “sconce”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
* “sconce”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
* Douglas Harper (2001–2025) “sconce”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
* sconce (light fixture) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
* sconce (fortification) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

## Italian
### Alternative forms

* sconcie (nonstandard)

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ˈskon.t͡ʃe/
* Rhymes: -ontʃe
* Hyphenation: scón‧ce

### Adjective

sconce
* feminine plural of sconcio