wax vesta

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a historical friction match with a wax-coated fiber stem and an ignitable tip

   The traveler struck a wax vesta to inspect the dark passage.

A compound of wax and vesta. Vesta became a British name for a short friction match in the nineteenth century, after Vesta, the Roman goddess of the hearth and its fire. Wax vesta distinguished the flexible wax-stemmed match from versions made with a wooden splint.

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