cresset

Meaning

Noun

• A metal cup, suspended from a pole and filled with burning pitch etc; once used as portable illumination.
• A small furnace or iron cage to hold fire for charring the inside of a cask, and making the staves flexible.

Origin

• From Old French crasset, cresset; perhaps of Old Dutch or Old High German origin, and akin to English cruse and/or French creuset ("crucible"), the latter being from Gallo-Roman Vulgar Latin *croceolus.