English · Idiom Historical

fairy sparks

Preserved but no longer current.

Both English Tiếng Việt

Meaning · English

The phosphoric light from decaying wood, fish, and other substances. Thought at one time to be lights prepared for the fairies at their revels.

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

Ánh sáng phosphor từ gỗ, cá và các chất khác đang phân hủy

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Era: ca. 1898 (Victorian)

Sources & notes

Reproduced from Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (1898 edition, public domain; archive.org, retrieved 2026-07-31; OCR text, minor errors possible). Reflects the scholarship and attitudes of its era.

Topics: Historical slang (1800s)

Common questions

What does “fairy sparks” mean?

The phosphoric light from decaying wood, fish, and other substances. Thought at one time to be lights prepared for the fairies at their revels.

Is “fairy sparks” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.

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