the.com/lighter
a pocket-sized sun you can summon with one cocky flick of your thumb
means A small handheld device that produces a flame on demand, typically to light cigarettes, candles, or stoves.
from From "light" plus the agent suffix "-er" — literally a "thing that lights." The verb "light" goes back to Old English "lihtan," meaning to kindle or set ablaze, itself rooted in the same ancient source as "light" the noun. Curiously, the flame-making sense of "lighter" arrived relatively late, only after portable ignition gadgets became practical in the 19th and 20th centuries — before that, a "lighter" was just as likely to mean a flat barge used to unload ships (a wholly separate word, from a different sense of "light" meaning to lift or lighten a load).
- older than matches
- Invented in 1823, three years before the friction match
- flint myth
- Modern lighters use ferrocerium, not actual flint
- borrowed forever
- Lighters are the most loaned, least returned object alive
- concert relic
- Phone flashlights quietly killed the swaying-flame ballad moment
- butane bones
- Inside hides liquid gas under casual everyday pressure
zippo — american lighter brand founded 1932, still produces over 3 million lighters annually
bic cristal lighter — french disposable lighter introduced 1973, best-selling lighter worldwide
ronson — american lighter manufacturer founded 1886, famous for 'wonderlite' and 'varaflame' models