FREE! Click here to Join FunTrivia. Thousands of games, quizzes, and lots more!
Fun Trivia
Home: Questions and Answers Forum
Answers to 100,000 Fascinating Questions
Welcome to FunTrivia's Question & Answer forum!

Search All Questions


Please cite any factual claims with citation links or references from authoritative sources. Editors continuously recheck submissions and claims.

Archived Questions

Goto Qn #


Why are "flashlights" known in the UK as "torches"; and, to be fair, why are "torches" known in the US as "flashlights"?

Question #121463. Asked by star_gazer.
Last updated May 15 2021.

Shiningstar7
Answer has 2 votes
Shiningstar7
18 year member
91 replies

Answer has 2 votes.
In Britain and all English speaking countries outside North America, torch usually means a flashlight, and a torch which uses fire as its light-source is often called a "burning torch" to distinguish.
~Wikipedia
The term flashlight is used mainly in the United States and Canada. In other English-speaking countries, the most common term is torch or electric torch.
~Wikipedia

May 20 2011, 2:42 AM
avatar
Baloo55th star
Answer has 5 votes
Currently Best Answer
Baloo55th star
21 year member
4545 replies avatar

Answer has 5 votes.

Currently voted the best answer.
In the UK, they were in fact 'electric torches' at first, and if I remember correctly, are called that in Arthur Ransome's Swallows and Amazons books (from around the 1930s). As on the whole we had given up using large smoky things for light, the 'electric' bit got dropped. Torch by itself normally means the electric thing, but does still retain its earlier meaning in contexts like the Kendal Torchlight Carnival, where the torches are large and on fire. (Well worth going to if you get a chance - they turn off all the street lights and the procession is lit by the torches. It goes for 2.5 miles and feels a lot longer when you are in it...) link http://www.kendaltorchlightcarnival.co.uk/
Flashlight is occasionally used in the UK, but my spellchecker objects to it (and to 'spellchecker' too). Not all torches flash - having a flash button was considered a great bonus because you could send messages in morse code. Or could have, if both of you had actually learned the code. Possibly North American ones were more fitted with flash buttons than ours were.

May 20 2011, 4:03 AM
avatar
star_gazer star
Answer has 1 vote
star_gazer star
22 year member
5236 replies avatar

Answer has 1 vote.

Response last updated by looney_tunes on May 15 2021.
May 20 2011, 8:56 AM
avatar
Baloo55th star
Answer has 0 votes
Baloo55th star
21 year member
4545 replies avatar

Answer has 0 votes.
Same here - but you can't really use them for lighting....

May 20 2011, 3:29 PM
avatar
star_gazer star
Answer has 0 votes
star_gazer star
22 year member
5236 replies avatar

Answer has 0 votes.
Not on a camping trip, but if there is nothing else around during the end of the world.

May 20 2011, 4:51 PM
Shiningstar7
Answer has 1 vote
Shiningstar7
18 year member
91 replies

Answer has 1 vote.
Link where I found information.

link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flashlight

May 22 2011, 4:55 PM
free email trivia FREE! Get a new mixed Fun Trivia quiz each day in your email. It's a fun way to start your day!


arrow Your Email Address:

Sign in or Create Free User ID to participate in the discussion

Related FunTrivia Quizzes

play quiz Human Torches
(Comic Books and Media)
play quiz The Better-Than-Fair Science Fair Project
(Miscellaneous Science)
play quiz Not Fair!
(General Topics for Kids)

Return to FunTrivia
"Ask FunTrivia" strives to offer the best answers possible to trivia questions. We ask our submitters to thoroughly research questions and provide sources where possible. Feel free to post corrections or additions. This is server B184.