hornlight

/ˈhɔrn.lait/

noun· region: inland village· frequency: domestic, weekly· first recorded: 1856

the small light at the far end of a corridor, by which one knows the house is still inhabited.

a compound, north-noemic horn- (the far corner, the extremity) plus -light. the older sense referred to lanterns set in horn-windowed cases at the end of barn passages. the household sense — the small bulb left on by the door — was settled by the 1920s. compare the english landing light, which lacks the same care.

"my mother left the hornlight on whether or not anyone was expected. it was an apology to the corridor." — from a memoir, t.s.

"i went down for water and the hornlight was out for the first time in eighteen years." — letter to a brother

field note · l.m., 1983 hornlight is the one dialect word in this collection that has entered general north-noemic usage; the housekeeping manuals of the 1950s adopted it without remark. it survives now mainly in the speech of those over sixty and in household ledgers.