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noun

Ignis fatuus n. (pl. ignes fatui)

A phosphorescent light that appears, in the night, over marshy ground, supposed to be occasioned by the decomposition of animal or vegetable substances, or by some inflammable gas; popularly called also Will-with-the-wisp, or Will-o'-the-wisp, and Jack-with-a-lantern, or Jack-o'-lantern. It is thought by some to be caused by phosphine, PH3, a sponaneously combustible gas.

Fig.: A misleading influence; a decoy. "Scared and guided by the ignis fatuus of popular superstition."

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Etymology of 'Ignis fatuus'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Ignis fatuus" Quotes from Famous Books

... anything whatever. The Crown-Prince prosecuted his Masonry, at Reinsberg or elsewhere, occasionally, for a year or two; but was never ardent in it; and very soon after his Accession, left off altogether: "Child's-play and IGNIS FATUUS mainly!" A Royal Lodge was established at Berlin, of which the new King consented to be patron; but he never once entered the place; and only his Portrait (a welcomely good one, still to be found there) presided over the mysteries in that Establishment. Harmless "fire," ...

— History of Friedrich II. of Prussia, Vol. X. (of XXI.) - Frederick The Great--At Reinsberg--1736-1740 • Thomas Carlyle

... filing in a heap with the rest, and we continue our mummery to the wretched shaving. Let us go for universals; for the magnetism, not for the needles. Human life and its persons are poor empirical pretensions. A personal influence is an ignis fatuus. If they say it is great, it is great; if they say it is small, it is small; you see it, and you see it not, by turns; it borrows all its size from the momentary estimation of the speakers: the Will-of-the-wisp vanishes if you go too near, vanishes if you go too far, and only blazes at one angle. ...

— Essays, Second Series • Ralph Waldo Emerson

... almost a mile without either recovering a view of the light, or seeing anything resembling a habitation. Still, however, he thought it best to persevere in that direction. It must surely have been a light in the hut of a forester, for it shone too steadily to be the glimmer of an ignis fatuus. The ground at length became broken, and declined rapidly, and although Brown conceived he still moved along what had once at least been a pathway, it was now very unequal, and the snow concealing those breaches and inequalities, the traveller had one or two falls ...

— Guy Mannering • Sir Walter Scott