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