sconce

1. a candle holder that is attached to a wall with an ornamental bracket.

   a wall sconce

late Middle English (originally denoting a portable lantern with a screen to protect the flame): shortening of Old French esconse ‘lantern’, or from medieval Latin sconsa, from Latin absconsa (laterna) ‘dark (lantern)’ (i.e. a lantern with a device for concealing the light), from abscondere ‘to hide’.

noun

a small fort or earthwork defending a ford, pass, or castle gate.

late Middle English: from Dutch schans ‘brushwood’, from Middle High German schanze . The earliest recorded sense ‘screen, interior partition’ derives perhaps from sconce¹; the later senses date from the late 16th century.