Forms: see CANDLE and STICK. [OE. candelsticca, f. candel, CANDLE + sticca, STICK. Cf. prec.: there is no ground for the inference that it was originally ‘a piece of pointed wood’; app. the earliest recorded meaning was the metallic ‘stalk’ or shaft of a candelabrum.]
1. A support for a candle; formerly a general name, including chandeliers, simple or branched, upright or pendent, branches, lustres, etc.; now chiefly a moveable stand for holding a candle.
c. 970. Chart. Bp. Æðelwold, in Cod. Dipl., VI. 101. .II. sylure candelsticcan and .II. ouergylde [etc.].
a. 1121. O. E. Chron., an. 1102. Þet wæron roden … and candel sticcan.
1303. R. Brunne, Handl. Synne, 9374. A kandelstyke stode þe kyng before, Þat oute of Ierusalem was bore.
1387. Trevisa, Higden, Rolls Ser. V. 207. He hadde a candle stikke [candelabrum] i-made by craft of honde so þat þe oyle schulde renne.
1552. in Ch. Goods of Berks, 8. Fyve brasenne candlestickes for thaulter.
1552. Huloet, Candlestycke with thre braunches or lightes.
1599. Minsheu, Sp. Dict., Candeléro de tinieblas, a candle-branch that hath many candlestickes in it.
1605. Bacon, Adv. Learn., I. iv. § 6 (1873), 32. Set up one great light, or branching candlestick of lights.
1687. Lond. Gaz., No. 2217/4. Two pair of small silver Chamber Candlesticks.
1753. Chambers, Cycl. Supp., s.v., Larger, and more stately candlesticks contrived for holding a great number of candles, are called branches and girondoles; and when made of glass, lustres.
1862. C. Wordsworth, New Test., Gen. Epist. 170. The word Candlestick has taken root in the English language as an emblem of a Church … but it does not nightly represent those λυχνίαι; which were similar to the Seven-branched λυχνίαι or Lampstands.
2. fig. (chiefly with reference to Rev. i. 20, in which the lighted candle is included.)
1483. Caxton, Gold. Leg., 259/1. Thou spouse of god … thou candelstyk of lyȝt withoute derkenes.
1709. Refl. Sacheverell’s Serm., 9. The golden Candlesticks, as the seven petitioning Bishops were then call’d.
1882. Farrar, Early Chr., II. 359. The final removal of the candlestick of Judaism.
3. Comb., as candlestick-caster, -maker, turner, etc.
c. 1510. Cocke Lorelles B. (1843), 10. Broche makers, glas blowers, candelstycke casts.
1599. Nashe, Lenten Stuffe (1871), 94. Candlestick-turners and tinkers.
1810. Jackson’s Oxford Jrnl., 3 Nov., 4/3. Four journeymen brass candlestick-makers were convicted … ‘of a combination to obtain an advance of wages,’ and committed to hard labour in the house of correction for one calender month.
1845. Disraeli, Sybil (1863), 25. Some monster of the middle class, some tinker or tailor, or candlestick-maker, with his long purse, preaching reform and practising corruption.
1867. F. Francis, Angling, x. (1880), 346. The Candlestick Maker.—This is a fly to light the salmon to bed with.
1852. Dickens, Bleak Ho., II. 236 (Hoppe). With a look candlestickwards.
Hence Candlesticked ppl. a., set on a candlestick.
1884. A. A. Putnam, Ten Yrs. Police Judge, xxviii. 226. A dozen such candles not hid under a bushel, but candlesticked and lighted on the bench.
