watchlight

Etymology

From watch + light.

watchlight means A light used to illuminate a night-time vigil. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 88 out of 100.

Why “watchlight” is a great word

WATCHLIGHT — [Noun] A faint, sustained light used to provide illumination during a night watch or vigil. From watch (in the sense of a period of keeping guard) + light (a source of illumination). First attested in 1620 in the writing of Francis Quarles. Unlike a "night-light," which offers a child's comfort against the dark, or a "lantern," which is built for motion and signal, a watchlight is purpose-built for the static, solitary duty of observance. It is the single candle guttering in a sickroom, the shielded lamp on a ship's chart table, or the low ember in a monastery's passage—a small, steadfast protest against the encroaching tide of night, measuring out the hours not in brightness, but in persistence. It is the light that witnesses the world while the world sleeps.

noun

A light used to illuminate a night-time vigil.