Candlelight is the soft light of burning wicks. By candlelight, a candlelight vigil, dinner by candlelight.
It is dim by modern standards — a candle gives roughly one hundredth of what a ceiling light does — which is worth remembering when reading about people who worked and sewed by it. A candlelight vigil is a public gathering of mourning or protest, and the image carries most of its meaning. Note candlelit, as in a candlelit dinner; and that the compound is Old English.
1nouncandlelightThe soft light of burning candles.
“We had a romantic dinner by candlelight on our anniversary.”
candlelight is a kind of light.
Old English candel leoht is candle plus light, and candel itself came from Latin candela, from candere, to shine white. Candid, incandescent and candidate all come from the same shining.
Old English
candel lēoht — candlelight
Middle English
candel lyght
English, today
candlelight
From Middle English candel lyght, candyllyght, candyll-lyȝht, candel liȝt, candle lyȝt, candeliȝt, candel-liht, from Old English candel lēoht (“candlelight”), equivalent to candle + light.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA