electrolier en · NOUN
Pronunciation
- /əˌlɛk.tɹəˈlɪ.əɹ/ (General-American)
- /i-/ (General-American)
- /əˌlɛk.tɹəˈlɪɹ/ (General-American)
- (Southern-England) audio
- /ɪˌlɛk.tɹəˈlɪ.ə/ (Received-Pronunciation)
Etymology
From electro- (prefix meaning ‘electric, electrical’) + (chande)lier.
Meanings
-
(dated) A fixture, usually hanging from a ceiling, for holding electric lamps; specifically, a chandelier lit by electricity rather than with candles or gas.
Every lamp in the drawing room is shaded, and no one can complain of too much light. Not so, however in the boudoir, where the electric lamps are displayed in all their brilliancy, lighting up the rose du barri walls with a splendour enough to captivate a Frenchwoman. The silvered walls brackets, fender, and electrolier, by Messrs. Verity, are dazzling; […]
1882 April 1, “Art and Electricity at Sydenham”, in The Artist and Journal of Home Culture, volume III, number 28, London: William Reeves, […], →OCLC, page 98, column 2:There was a gigantic electrolier, ten feet high, with upward-curling gilt branches opening into cloudy glass lilies of light.
2004, Alan Hollinghurst, chapter 3, in The Line of Beauty […], 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN, page 62:Early Electric! With what radiant hope / Men formed this many-branched electrolier, / Twisted the flex around the iron rope / And let the dazzling vacuum tubes hang clear, / And then with hearts the rich contrivance fill'd / Of copper, beaten by the Bromsgrove Guild.
1953 January 28, John Betjeman, “The Metropolitan Railway: Baker Street Station Buffet”, in Punch, or The London Charivari, volume CCXXIV, number 5860, London: [Bradbury, Agnew & Co. for the] Punch Office […], →OCLC, page 155:Also, the Hillbridge house was of an even more gorgeous fancifulness than he had remembered, in its tapestry and velours rockers with carved arms, and the storm of light from the bracket lamps and from the electrolier of crimson, pearl and orange mosaic glass.
1917 July 28, Sinclair Lewis, “A Woman by Candlelight”, in Mark Schorer, editor, I’m a Stranger Here Myself and Other Stories, Laurel edition, New York, N.Y.: Dell Publishing Co., published October 1962, →OCLC, page 50:Garofalo, the second fiddle, is black, beady-eyed and pot-bellied. The convex reflections of the electroliers slide back and forth over his polished bald head, as he bends, again, again, in little military salutes.
1923 November, Aldous Huxley, chapter XIII, in Antic Hay, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC, page 192:At the bottom of the stairs my hand met an electric switch. I turned it, and a great electrolier of twelve red globes flooded the cellar with a red light. And behold, I was not in a cellar, but in a bedroom, a great rich garish bedroom, coloured blood red from top to bottom.
1933 January 9, George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], chapter II, in Down and Out in Paris and London, London: Victor Gollancz […], →OCLC, page 16:Each of the eight glass-topped tables featured 'a tiny portable electrolier of a very chaste design'.
2012, Andrew Martin, “The Expansion of the Metropolitan and the Expansion of the District – and a Pause for Thought”, in Underground Overground: A Passenger’s History of the Tube, London: Profile Books, →ISBN, page 73:Artificial illumination is furnished by incandescent electric lamps pendant from a large corona and from side electroliers.
1891 December, “The Institution and Its Government”, in Sixteenth Year Book Containing the Annual Report of the Board of Managers of the New York State Reformatory at Elmira for the Year Ending September, 30, 1891. […], Elmira, N.Y.: N[ew] Y[ork] S[tate] Reformatory Press, →OCLC, page 72:The electric fixtures are the best of their kind that have ever been placed in a public building. […] [E]ach of the thirty-one light electroliers in the Senate and House weighs nearly 900 pounds, and the cost of each was $1,176.00, while the 13 light electroliers in the Supreme Court and Governor's reception room weigh over 400 pounds each, and cost, the first nearly $600.00, and the latter nearly $400.00.
1903, E. B. Kennedy, “Montana’s Capitol”, in Contributions to the Historical Society of Montana […], volume IV, Helena, Mont.: Independent Publishing Company, →OCLC, page 54:
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| electroliers | Number=Plur | lexicographic |
Coordinates
gasalier · gaselier · gasolier
Hypernyms
Translations (2)
ar ثريا كهربائية (fixture for holding electric lamps; chandelier lit by electricity) · fi kattokruunu sähkövaloilla (fixture for holding electric lamps; chandelier lit by electricity)