luminaria : M-W's Word of the Day

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The Word of the Day for December 24 is:

luminaria \loo-muh-NAIR-ee-uh\ noun
: a traditional Mexican Christmas lantern originally consisting of a candle set in sand inside a paper bag

Example sentence:
More than one neighborhood in our Texas town is lit by luminarias lining the streets for the annual Christmas Stroll.

Did you know?
"Luminaria" is a fairly recent addition to English; the earliest known use in our language dates from 1949, about the time that the old Mexican Christmas custom was gaining popularity among Anglo-Americans. In some parts of the U.S., particularly New Mexico, these festive lanterns are also called "farolitos," which means "little lanterns" in Spanish. We borrowed "luminaria" from Spanish, but the word has been around with exactly the same spelling since the days of Late Latin. The term ultimately traces to the classical Latin "luminare," meaning "window," and to "lumen," meaning "light." It is related to other light-bearing words such as "luminary," "illuminate," and "phillumenist" (a fancy name for someone who collects matchbooks).

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