Coffee is the second largest traded commodity in the world, next to crude oil. It’s also one of the oldest commodities, with over 2.25 billion cups of coffee consumed worldwide daily.
sconced
simple past tense and past participle of sconce
Source: Wiktionary
Sconce, n. Etym: [D. schans, OD. schantse, perhaps from OF. esconse a hiding place, akin to esconser to hide, L. absconsus, p. p. of abscondere. See Abscond, and cf. Ensconce, Sconce a candlestick.]
1. A fortification, or work for defense; a fort. No sconce or fortress of his raising was ever known either to have been forced, or yielded up, or quitted. Milton.
2. A hut for protection and shelter; a stall. One that . . . must raise a sconce by the highway and sell switches. Beau. & Fl.
3. A piece of armor for the head; headpiece; helmet. I must get a sconce for my head. Shak.
4. Fig.: The head; the skull; also, brains; sense; discretion. [Colloq.] To knock him about the sconce with a dirty shovel. Shak.
5. A poll tax; a mulct or fine. Johnson.
6. Etym: [OF. esconse a dark lantern, properly, a hiding place. See Etymol. above.]
Definition: A protection for a light; a lantern or cased support for a candle; hence, a fixed hanging or projecting candlestick. Tapers put into lanterns or sconces of several-colored, oiled paper, that the wind might not annoy them. Evelyn. Golden sconces hang not on the walls. Dryden.
7. Hence, the circular tube, with a brim, in a candlestick, into which the candle is inserted.
8. (Arch.)
Definition: A squinch.
9. A fragment of a floe of ice. Kane.
10. Etym: [Perhaps a different word.]
Definition: A fixed seat or shelf. [Prov. Eng.]
Sconce, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Sconced; p. pr. & vb. n. Sconcing.]
1. To shut up in a sconce; to imprison; to insconce. [Obs.] Immure him, sconce him, barricade him in 't. Marston.
2. To mulct; to fine. [Obs.] Milton.
Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition
1 July 2025
(noun) the state of being a slave; “So every bondman in his own hand bears the power to cancel his captivity”--Shakespeare
Coffee is the second largest traded commodity in the world, next to crude oil. It’s also one of the oldest commodities, with over 2.25 billion cups of coffee consumed worldwide daily.