[L. lūcifer adj., light-bringing; used as proper name of the morning star; f. lūc(i)-, lūx light + -fer bearing. Cf. the equivalent Gr. φωσφόρος, after which it was prob. formed.]
I. As proper name, and allusively. (With initial capital.)
1. The morning star; the planet Venus when she appears in the sky before sunrise. Now only poet.
c. 1050. Byrhtferth’s Handboc, in Anglia (1885), VIII. 320. Þær æfter on þam circule lucifer up arist.
c. 1374. Chaucer, Boeth., III. metr. i. 50 (Camb. MS.). After þat lucifere the day sterre hath chasyd awey the dirke nyht.
1388. Wyclif, Job xxxviii. 32. Whether thou bryngist forth Lucifer, that is dai sterre, in his tyme.
1629. Milton, Nativity, 74. The Stars … will not take their flight, For all the morning light, Or Lucifer that often warn’d them thence.
1744. Akenside, Pleas. Imag. (1779), I. 148. Lucifer displays His beaming forehead through the gates of morn.
1887. Bowen, Virg. Æneid, II. 801. Now on the mountains of Ida was rising Lucifer bright.
† b. fig. (Cf. DAY-STAR.) Obs.
a. 1585. Cartwright, in R. Browne, Answ. to C., 87. Vntill such time as the day starte spring & Lucifer do rise in our hearts.
1599. Broughton’s Lett., viii. 26. You Cynosura and Lucifer of nations, the stupor and admiration of the world.
2. The rebel archangel whose fall from heaven was supposed to be referred to in Isa. xiv. 12; Satan, the Devil. Now rare in serious use; current chiefly in the phrase As proud as Lucifer.
The Scripture passage (Vulg. ‘Quomodo cecidisti de cælo, Lucifer, qui mane oriebaris?’ A.V. ‘How art thou fallen from heauen, O Lucifer, sonne of the morning?’) is part of a ‘parable against the king of Babylon’ (Isa. xiv. 4); but the mention of a fall from heaven led Christian interpreters to suppose that ‘king of Babylon’ was to be interpreted spiritually, as a designation of the chief of ‘the angels who kept not their first estate.’ Hence the general patristic view that Lucifer was the name of Satan before his fall. The Latin word was adopted in all the Eng. versions down to 1611; the Revised version has daystar.
a. 1000. Christ & Satan, 367 (Gr.). Wæs þæt encgelcyn ær ʓenemned, Lucifer haten, leohtberende.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 442. And for þat he was fair and bright, lucifer to nam he hight.
c. 1380. Wyclif, Wks. (1880), 30. Þese nouelries maad of ydiotis & synful wrecchis of lucifers pride.
c. 1450. Mirour Saluacioun, 4377. With feendes and lucifere … in helle.
1567. Gude & Godlie Ball. (S.T.S.), 175. Proude Lucifer, The greit maister of hell.
1613. Shaks., Hen. VIII., III. ii. 371. And when he falles, he falles like Lucifer, Neuer to hope againe.
1625. Purchas, Pilgrims, I. IV. 571. His Pride is such, as may teach Lucifer.
1667. Milton, P. L., VII. 131.
1771. Fletcher, Checks, Wks. 1795, II. 352. A fall into pride may drive me nearer Lucifer.
1814. Scott, Wav., lvii. A second Lucifer of ambition and wrath.
1839. Bailey, Festus (1852), 55. Men say—as proud as Lucifer—Pray who would not be proud with such a train?
Comb. 1553. Becon, Reliques of Rome (1563), 1. His … Lucifer-like pride.
1581. J. Bell, Haddon’s Answ. Osor., 219. With such an incredible inordinate desire of luciferlike superioritie.
¶ Misused for: A devil.
1887. Ruskin, Præterita, II. 72. The temper of eight little Lucifers in a swept lodging.
† b. allusively. One who commits the sin of Lucifer, i.e., who seeks to dethrone God; occas. applied to one who presumptuously rebels against an earthly sovereign. Obs.
1549. Cheke, Hurt Sedit. (1641), 12. That presumption of challenging Gods seat, doth shew you to have been Lucifers.
1579. Fulke, Heskins’s Parl., 305. What Lucifer is that, that wil oppose him selfe against the flatt commaundement of the holie ghost.
1602. Warner, Alb. Eng., IX. l. 229. Yea, too blasphemous, they incroch vpon the Deitie, Though of these Lucifers haue been that perish through a Flie.
a. 1618. Raleigh, in Gutch, Coll. Cur., I. 89. Although they be perpetual Lucifers, they must always be Angels, and live in plenty.
II. As a common noun.
3. Orig. lucifer match: A friction match made usually of a splint of wood tipped with an inflammable substance ignitable on a roughened or otherwise prepared surface.
1831. John Bull, 28 Nov. XI. 379/1. [Jones v. Watts, speech of plaintiff’s counsel.] Mr. Jones had, some time ago, invented a match to produce an instantaneous light … and he had given his ingenious invention the name of ‘Promethean.’… Subsequently the plaintiff invented another description of match, which he designated with the frightful name of ‘Lucifer.’… For the ‘Lucifers’ he had not … secured his right as the patentee…. The defendant made an exact imitation of the ‘Lucifer Match.’
1836. Brande, Man. Chem. (ed. 4), 543. Matches tipped with some of these inflammable mixtures, and called Lucifers, are now in common use, and are inflamed either by friction or by the contact of sulphuric acid. Ibid., 1274. Gen. Index, Lucifer matches.
1837. Ann. Reg., 80. Several other lucifer matches were lying about, one of them having the appearance of having been drawn through the sandpaper.
1849. Mrs. Carlyle, Lett., II. 42. When we had put a lucifer to some sticks in the grate.
1876. ‘Capt. Crawley,’ Card Players’ Man., 120. Cribbage … is played with a full pack of fifty-two cards,… and two pegs (that may be of ivory, or lucifer matches, with the phosphorus ends cut off).
1884. E. Yates, Recoll., I. ii. 45. The lucifer, or Congreve match as it was called,… was ignited by friction on sandpaper, and had a very unpleasant smell.
Comb. 1858. Simmonds, Dict. Trade, Lucifer-box.
1862. H. Marryat, Year in Sweden, II. 400. Mr. Lundström … showed me over his lucifer-manufactory.
Hence † Lucifering a. nonce-wd., acting the part of Lucifer.
1602. Warner, Alb. Eng., IX. l. 229. Of which Conuerting, Christo-fers yee [Popes] thenceforth shalbe said: If not, apply and perish in your Luciferring Traid.
