Chandler

Latin candela meant a candle — a stick of tallow or wax with a wick. Candelarius was the candle-maker. In medieval English trade, the chandler (from Old French chandelier, the person who makes chandelles) was the specialist retailer of candles — an essential commodity before electric light. Houses, churches, and ships all depended on the chandler's supply.

The ship chandler developed as a distinct trade from the 17th century onward. A nautical chandler supplied everything a ship needed for a voyage: candles and lanterns, rope and rigging, provisions and preserved foods. Port towns had chandlers' warehouses where ships reprovisioned between voyages. The trade was lucrative: a square-rigged ship consumed enormous quantities of rope, canvas, and food.

The ship chandler's shop sold everything in bulk — which expanded the word's meaning to any retailer of general provisions. A corn chandler sold grain; a tallow chandler sold animal fat for candles and soap; a general chandler sold household supplies. The trade created the department store's ancestor: a single location selling diverse practical goods.

Raymond Chandler (1888–1959) gave the surname its literary meaning. His Philip Marlowe novels — The Big Sleep (1939), Farewell, My Lovely (1940), The Long Goodbye (1953) — defined the hardboiled detective genre. 'Chandleresque' means a certain prose style: laconic, metaphor-rich, morally clear in a corrupt world. The candle-maker's trade name became a literary adjective.