A chandelier is a branched ornamental light fixture designed to be mounted on ceilings or walls. The word chandelier was first known in the English language in the 1736, borrowed from the Old French word 'candere', which comes from the Latin 'candelabrum'.

Classic chandeliers have arrays of hanging crystal prisms to illuminate a room with refracted light, while contemporary chandeliers assume a more minimalist design that does not contain prisms and illuminate a room with direct light from the lamps, sometimes also equipped with translucent glass covering each lamp.

Chandeliers are distinct from pendant lights, as they usually consist of multiple lamps and hang in branched frames, whereas pendant lights hang from a single cord and only contain one or two lamps with fewer decorative elements.

Chandeliers evolved from the 'candelabra' and were invented during the medieval era. They originally used candles as their source of light and remained in use until the 18th century, when gas lights, later superseded by electric lights, were invented. Chandeliers are often ornate and normally use incandescent light bulbs. Now, some modern designs also use fluorescent lamps and recently with a light-emitting diode (LED) technology.

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