Other forms: lighters
A lighter is the small device for lighting a cigarette. Flint, a wheel, and a flame.
Disposable ones are everywhere and a refillable one is a possession people keep for decades. Holding one aloft at a concert has been replaced by holding up a phone, which is a genuine cultural loss. The word is also the comparative of light, in both its senses of weight and brightness, so a lighter bag and a lighter shade are both correct and quite unrelated.
1nounlighterA small device producing a flame for lighting cigarettes.
“He patted his pockets looking for a lighter.”
Proto-Indo-European
*lewk-
Middle English
light
English
light
English, today
lighter
Built from
From light + er. Cognate with Middle Dutch lichtere, lichter (“one who spreads light, illuminator”), Dutch lichter, luchter (“candle-holder, chandelier”). Compare also Middle English lightnere, liȝtnere (“one who enlightens or illuminates”). light comes from Middle English light. From Middle English light, liht, leoht, from Old English lēoht, from Proto-West Germanic leuht, from Proto-Germanic leuhtą, from Proto-Indo-European lewktom, from the root lewk- (“to shine”). 2
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA