Nomenclature - Lamp vs. Bulb

Bulb - the thing that the light comes from.

Lamp - the thing that holds the thing that the light comes from.

Growing up around industrial electricians I can tell you that all light emitting elements were referred to as "lamps". Bulb was strictly a layman's term. The thing that holds the lamp? "Lighting fixture." Installing lamps was always "lamping the fixtures". Replacing elements was "re-lamping".

Correct, having worked in the industry in the past, my boss always told me that a lighting device made of glass was a Lamp . . . a bulb is something you plant in the ground in the springtime.

Good answer since all the solid state light emitting devices I have used have been referred to as lamps or emitters specifically.

But where did the laymans term originate?

My speculation is the early hand blown glass incandescent lamps were similarly shaped to the standard flower bulb.

Now why electronic valves were referred to as tubes I can't hazard a guess.

bulb

1568, "an onion," from M.Fr. bulbe, from L. bulbus "bulb, onion," from Gk. bolbos "plant with round swelling on underground stem." Expanded by 1800 to "swelling in a glass tube" (thermometer bulb, light bulb, etc.).

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper

I concur here: "Bulb" = rounded enlargement (think pneumatic "thingie" on end of sphygmomanometer)

"Lamp" = thing that gives light or heat (i.e. whale-oil, or kerosene[parafin] lamps)

I always thought the lamp was the fixture. As a lamp can produce light with out a bulb. The electric light bulb is just part of the lamp just as the wick in an oil lamp is.

I would have gone with the explanations above until I emigrated to Oz. Especially as I live under down under, they have a different nomenclature here.

Bulbs and lamps = GLOBE

Tubes = Fleuro's

I think people will come up with different terminology from around the world. When in Rome............!

I always thought that all electric lights are "lamps", including the incandescent bulb. The reason why they call it a bulb was because of its shape.

Ergo, a bulb is a type of lamp.

I've been brought up to think of 'bulbs' as the light emitting part of an assembled 'lamp'...

As in bulb = wick and lantern = lamp or torch

And a fluorescent 'bulb' in called a tube, due to its shape...

An electonic 'tube' is called a valve etc...

Confused? I blerdy am

John.

Oh I forgot and also a torch = flashlamp!!

a flaming torch is called a match / flame / candle / fire etc...

A lantern is a ..... errrmmm stumped there!!

John.

<A lantern is a ..... errrmmm stumped there!!>

How about 'a housing, usually decorative, that partly or totally surrounds a light emitter'?

I would concur with that description.

But thinking about it if the lamp is the complete lighting fixture then why is a lamp-shade called that? As its only part of the lighting fixture that covers the bulb... It should be called a bulb- shade!!?

Brain is addled.... John.

Definitions from the IESNA handbook (Illuminating Engineers of North America)

Bulb See Lamp

Lamp a generic term for a source created to produce optical radiation. By extension, the term is also used to denote sources that radiate in regions of the spectrum adjacent to the visible.

Note Through popular usage, a portable luminaire consisting of a lamp with shade, reflector, enclosing globe, housing, or other accessories is also sometimes called a lamp. In such cases, in order to distinguish between the assembled unit and the light source within it, the latter is often called a bulb or tube, if it is electrically powered.

L.E.D. = Light Emitting Diode

an emitter lol

Just semantics so far as I know. My Papa always called the FIXTURE a lamp, the glass-enclosed filament a bulb, and if fluorescent, a tube. Why it would matter to anyone more than that is, however, quite beyond my ken.