Why this word is great
LAMPADARIUS — [Noun] A slave who carried torches before high officials in ancient Rome, or the leader of the left choir in Eastern Orthodox Christian singing. From Latin lampadārius ("torch-bearer"), itself from lampada ("torch"), borrowed from the Greek λαμπάς (lampás, "torch, lamp"). Unlike a "lictor" (who bore the fasces as a symbol of authority) or a "cantor" (who led song without the torch’s glow or the left choir’s specific charge), the lampadarius was both guide and herald—light without power. He was the flickering advance of a magistrate’s procession through Rome’s unlit streets, the lone voice anchoring the left flank of a Byzantine hymn, the humble bearer of illumination that others used to see their way. To carry light for another is to know your place in the shadows.