Enzfj2 wrote: Mon Jun 30, 2025 8:42 pm
[...] sulfur – not phosphorus [...]
One famous fairy tale is NL:Het meisje met de zwavelstokjes — The Little Match Girl by Hans Christian Andersen. As the Dutch name suggests, these were sticks tipped with sulfur — “zwavel” (S) — not phosphorus — “fosfor” (P).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Little_Match_Girl
Interestingly, the English word match seems to come from the French mèche, referring to a piece of cord or wick soaked in a liquid that evaporates into a flammable gas — the liquid itself doesn’t burn. Before modern matches were invented as small sticks, fire-starters were often sold in longer lengths and served as wicks for candles or oil lamps.
Early sulfur matches were far more flammable than today’s safety matches. They could ignite easily — sometimes even accidentally — simply by striking a rough surface. People would lit them on the leather soles of shoes or boots. You may have seen that in old Westerns with characters like John Wayne, or dancers like Fred Astaire sparking a match with style. These kinds of matches still exist today and are known as strike-anywhere matches (French: allumettes gratte-partout), or more colloquially, “cowboy matches.”
A similar principle - i.e. by evaporation - is used in products like Air Wick, which relies on a wick to draw scented liquid from a container via capillary action. As the liquid reaches the top, it evaporates into the air, spreading fragrance.
The same evaporation concept applies to candles: it's not the melted wax that burns directly, but rather the vaporized gas produced by heating the wax.
Here’s an experiment you can try at home:
- Light a candle and let it burn long enough to create a pool of melted wax.
- Keep a lit match ready nearby.
- Blow out the candle.
- While the wax is still hot and evaporating, bring the lit match close — above the wick, but don’t touch it.
- The vapor will ignite, and the candle will relight — as if by magic.
It's as if the flame of the match jumps down to the wick 
It’s important to note: the wick itself doesn’t burn to produce the flame. The flame is sustained by the wax vapor. The wick only gets shorter over time because the tip sticking out into the flame slowly burns away.
The same applies to oil lamps, like classic storm lamps.
A small knob adjusts the wick’s length, and thus the brightness of the flame.
Of course, when a wooden match burns, it’s not the wick or vapor that ignites — it’s the wood itself that catches fire.
However, the trick to lighting multiple candles with a single match is to dip it into the molten wax of the first candle. This way, the flame is sustained primarily by the vaporized wax, rather than the wood alone.
Note:
In English, "flammable" and "inflammable" mean the same thing — both indicate that something can catch fire easily.
The prefix "in-" in inflammable does not mean "not", as it does in words like invisible, incomplete, or insane.
In Dutch, the equivalent is "ontvlambaar" or "ontbrandbaar", with that characteristic "t" in the prefix "ont-" (not "onvlambaar" or "onbrandbaar").
In Dutch, "ont-" (as in ontsteking or ontdooiing) often marks the start of a process — like ignition or thawing.
So, in this context:
- EN: inflammable = can ignite/start burning
- NL: ontvlambaar = can start burning
The "in-" in inflammable aligns more with the idea of ignition, not negation.
But you all knew that, of course.
Match: from French mèche, referring to the wick of a candle
Fósforo: from Greek φωσφόρος, lit. "bearer of light"
Allumette: derived from the French verb allumer, to light up
Streichholz: from the German verb streichen (to strike), and the noun Holz (wood)
Fiammifero: from Latin flammiferum, lit. "flame-producer"
Lucifer: from Latin lucifer, composed of the noun lucis (genitive), and the verb ferre (to bring, to carry), lit. "light-bringer"
, Russian 
, Romanian 
, Ukrainian 
, French 
Carioca: this word is used today to refer to someone from Rio de Janeiro. It comes from the 
/ trying to understand at least a bit 
/ fan of 
(bs/bl)
