First published 2019
lightsabre | lightsabernoun
Factsheet
What does the noun lightsabre mean?
There is one meaning in OED's entry for the noun lightsabre. See ‘Meaning & use’ for definition, usage, and quotation evidence.
How common is the noun lightsabre?
About 0.05occurrences per million words in modern written English
| Oct.–Dec. 2017 | 0.9 |
| Jan.–Mar. 2018 | 0.78 |
| Apr.–June 2018 | 0.73 |
| July–Sept. 2018 | 0.68 |
| Oct.–Dec. 2018 | 0.81 |
| Jan.–Mar. 2019 | 0.85 |
| Apr.–June 2019 | 1.3 |
| July–Sept. 2019 | 1.4 |
| Oct.–Dec. 2019 | 1.3 |
| Jan.–Mar. 2020 | 1.1 |
| Apr.–June 2020 | 1.0 |
| July–Sept. 2020 | 0.67 |
| Oct.–Dec. 2020 | 0.69 |
| Jan.–Mar. 2021 | 0.69 |
| Apr.–June 2021 | 0.7 |
| July–Sept. 2021 | 0.74 |
| Oct.–Dec. 2021 | 0.92 |
| Jan.–Mar. 2022 | 0.86 |
| Apr.–June 2022 | 0.92 |
| July–Sept. 2022 | 1.0 |
| Oct.–Dec. 2022 | 1.1 |
| Jan.–Mar. 2023 | 0.93 |
How is the noun lightsabre pronounced?
British English
/ˈlʌɪtseɪbə/
LIGHT-say-buh
U.S. English
/ˈlaɪtˌseɪbər/
LIGHT-say-buhr
Where does the noun lightsabre come from?
Earliest known use
1970s
The earliest known use of the noun lightsabre is in the 1970s.
OED's earliest evidence for lightsabre is from 1975, in the writing of G. Lucas.
Nearby entries
- light quantum, n.1925–
- light rail, n.1836–
- light railway, n.1842–
- light reaction, n.1883–
- light receptor, n.1908–
- light red, n.1692–
- light relief, n.1885–
- light room, n.1731–
- light rum, n.1872–
- lights, n.c1225–
- lightsabre | lightsaber, n.1975–
- light sail, n.¹1791–1921
- light sail, n.²1958–
- light scatter, n.1909–
- light scattering, adj. & n.1871–
- lightscot, n.Old English–
- light sensation, n.1874–
- light-sensitive, adj.1874–
- light sensitivity, n.1905–
- light sensor, n.1958–
- lightshade, n.1799–
Etymology
Meaning & use
Contents
- 1975–In the fictional universe of the Star Wars films: a weapon resembling a sword, but having a destructive beam of light in place of a blade. Also: a toy resembling this.
- 1975
Luke. I've taken my speeder and the ‘droids’... I've also taken my father's lightsaber.
G. Lucas, Star Wars: from Adventures Luke Starkiller (film script, 3rd draft) (Univ. of Michigan, Donald Hall Coll. Screenplays) xxxiii. - 1978
Lerner wishes to expand her paper... I urge her to adjust her deflector shields, check the atomic batteries in her light sabre, and insert a fresh refill in her ballpoint pen.
E. M. Bernal in Educ. Measurem. & Law: Proc. ETS Invitational Conf. (Educ. Testing Service) i. 29 - 1996
Shirts off, waving around toy light sabers in a giddy stupor.
Raygun November 77 - 2005
Epic space battles, stunning lightsabre duels..will have..geeks in awe.
Scene (Brisbane) 18 May 40/2 - 2016
A neat part about kids is how they keep you guessing. For example, they could stop by your room at 3AM wielding lightsabers.
@Lhlodder 7 August in twitter.com (O.E.D. Archive)
Pronunciation
British English
/ˈlʌɪtseɪbə/
LIGHT-say-buh
U.S. English
/ˈlaɪtˌseɪbər/
LIGHT-say-buhr
Pronunciation keys
Consonants
- ppea
- ttea
- kkey
- bbuy
- ddye
- ɡguy
- tʃchore
- dʒjay
- ffore
- θthaw
- ssore
- ʃshore
- vvee
- ðthee
- zzee
- ʒbeige
- xloch
- hhay
- llay
- ɬrhingyll
- rray
- wway
- jyore
- mmay
- nnay
- ŋsing
Some consonants can take the function of the vowel in unstressed syllables. Where necessary, a syllabic marker diacritic is used, hence <petal> /ˈpɛtl/ but <petally> /ˈpɛtl̩i/.
Vowels
- iːfleece
- ihappy
- ɪkit
- ɛdress
- atrap, bath
- ɑːstart, palm, bath
- ɒlot
- ɔːthought, force
- ʌstrut
- ʊfoot
- uːgoose
- əletter
- əːnurse
- ɪənear
- ɛːsquare
- ʊəcure
- eɪface
- ʌɪpride
- aʊmouth
- əʊgoat
- ɔɪvoice
- ãgratin
- ɒ̃salon
- ᵻ(/ɪ/-/ə/)
- ᵿ(/ʊ/-/ə/)
Other symbols
- The symbol ˈ at the beginning of a syllable indicates that that syllable is pronounced with primary stress.
- The symbol ˌ at the beginning of a syllable indicates that that syllable is pronounced with secondary stress.
- Round brackets ( ) in a transcription indicate that the symbol within the brackets is optional.
View the pronunciation model here.
Consonants
- ppea
- ttea
- kkey
- bbuy
- ddye*
- ɡguy
- tʃchore
- dʒjay
- ffore
- θthaw
- ssore
- ʃshore
- vvee
- ðthee
- zzee
- ʒbeige
- xloch
- hhay
- llay
- rray
- wway
- jyore
- mmay
- nnay
- ŋsing
* /d/ also represents a 'tapped' /t/ as in <bitter>
Some consonants can take the function of the vowel in unstressed syllables. Where necessary, a syllabic marker diacritic is used, hence <petal> /ˈpɛd(ə)l/ but <petally> /ˈpɛdl̩i/.
Vowels
- ifleece, happy
- ɪkit
- ɛdress
- ætrap, bath
- ɑlot, palm, cloth, thought
- ɑrstart
- ɔcloth, thought
- ɔrnorth, force
- ʊfoot
- ugoose
- əstrut, comma
- ərnurse, letter
- ɪ(ə)rnear
- ɛ(ə)rsquare
- ʊ(ə)rcure
- eɪface
- aɪpride
- aʊmouth
- oʊgoat
- ɔɪvoice
- ɑ̃gratin
- æ̃salon
- ᵻ(/ɪ/-/ə/)
- ᵿ(/ʊ/-/ə/)
Other symbols
- The symbol ˈ at the beginning of a syllable indicates that that syllable is pronounced with primary stress.
- The symbol ˌ at the beginning of a syllable indicates that that syllable is pronounced with secondary stress.
- Round brackets ( ) in a transcription indicate that the symbol within the brackets is optional.
View the pronunciation model here.
Simple text respell breaks words into syllables, separated by a hyphen. The syllable which carries the primary stress is written in capital letters. This key covers both British and U.S. English Simple Text Respell.
Consonants
b, d, f, h, k, l, m, n, p, r, s, t, v, w and z have their standard English values
- gguy
- jjay
- yyore
- chchore
- khloch
- shshore
- ththaw
- dhthee
- zhbeige
Vowels
- atrap
- ahpalm
- airsquare
- arstart
- arrcarry (British only)
- awthought
- ayface
- a(ng)gratin
- edress
- eefleece
- eerdeer
- errmerry
- ikit
- ighpride
- irrmirror
- olot (British only)
- ohgoat
- oogoose
- oorcure
- orforce
- orrsorry (British only)
- owmouth
- oyvoice
- o(ng)salon
- ustrut
- uhletter
- urnurse
- urrhurry
- uufoot
Forms
Variant forms
- 1900s–lightsaber, lightsabre
Frequency
lightsabre typically occurs about 0.05 times per million words in modern written English.
lightsabre is in frequency band 3, which contains words occurring between 0.01 and 0.1 times per million words in modern written English. More about OED's frequency bands
Frequency of lightsabre | lightsaber, n., 1970–2010
* Occurrences per million words in written English
Historical frequency series are derived from Google Books Ngrams (version 2), a data set based on a corpus of several million books printed in English between 1500 and 2010. The Ngrams data has been cross-checked against frequency measures from other corpora, and re-analysed in order to handle homographs and other ambiguities.
The overall frequency for a given word is calculated by summing frequencies for the main form of the word, any plural or inflected forms, and any major spelling variations.
Smoothing has been applied to series for lower-frequency words, using a moving-average algorithm. This reduces short-term fluctuations, which may be produced by variability in the content of the Google Books corpus.
| Decade | Frequency per million words |
|---|---|
| 1970 | 0.04 |
| 1980 | 0.05 |
| 1990 | 0.05 |
| 2000 | 0.05 |
| 2010 | 0.062 |
Frequency of lightsabre | lightsaber, n., 2017–2023
* Occurrences per million words in written English
Modern frequency series are derived from a corpus of 20 billion words, covering the period from 2017 to the present. The corpus is mainly compiled from online news sources, and covers all major varieties of World English.
Smoothing has been applied to series for lower-frequency words, using a moving-average algorithm. This reduces short-term fluctuations, which may be produced by variability in the content of the corpus.
| Period | Frequency per million words |
|---|---|
| Oct.–Dec. 2017 | 0.9 |
| Jan.–Mar. 2018 | 0.78 |
| Apr.–June 2018 | 0.73 |
| July–Sept. 2018 | 0.68 |
| Oct.–Dec. 2018 | 0.81 |
| Jan.–Mar. 2019 | 0.85 |
| Apr.–June 2019 | 1.3 |
| July–Sept. 2019 | 1.4 |
| Oct.–Dec. 2019 | 1.3 |
| Jan.–Mar. 2020 | 1.1 |
| Apr.–June 2020 | 1.0 |
| July–Sept. 2020 | 0.67 |
| Oct.–Dec. 2020 | 0.69 |
| Jan.–Mar. 2021 | 0.69 |
| Apr.–June 2021 | 0.7 |
| July–Sept. 2021 | 0.74 |
| Oct.–Dec. 2021 | 0.92 |
| Jan.–Mar. 2022 | 0.86 |
| Apr.–June 2022 | 0.92 |
| July–Sept. 2022 | 1.0 |
| Oct.–Dec. 2022 | 1.1 |
| Jan.–Mar. 2023 | 0.93 |
Entry history for lightsabre | lightsaber, n.
lightsabre, n. was first published in September 2019
lightsabre, n. was last modified in July 2023
oed.com is a living text, updated every three months. Modifications may include:
- further revisions to definitions, pronunciation, etymology, headwords, variant spellings, quotations, and dates;
- new senses, phrases, and quotations.
Revisions and additions of this kind were last incorporated into lightsabre, n. in July 2023.
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Chicago
Oxford English Dictionary, s.v. “,” , .
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MLA9
“” Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford UP, , .
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Citation details
Factsheet for lightsabre | lightsaber, n.
Browse entry
Nearby entries
- light quantum, n.1925–
- light rail, n.1836–
- light railway, n.1842–
- light reaction, n.1883–
- light receptor, n.1908–
- light red, n.1692–
- light relief, n.1885–
- light room, n.1731–
- light rum, n.1872–
- lights, n.c1225–
- lightsabre | lightsaber, n.1975–
- light sail, n.¹1791–1921
- light sail, n.²1958–
- light scatter, n.1909–
- light scattering, adj. & n.1871–
- lightscot, n.Old English–
- light sensation, n.1874–
- light-sensitive, adj.1874–
- light sensitivity, n.1905–
- light sensor, n.1958–
- lightshade, n.1799–
