lampburner

/ˈlæmpˌbɜːnə/nounVerified New

An employee whose visible lateness at the office functions as a loyalty display, whatever the hour's actual output.

The desk lamp on at nine is the modern midnight oil: devotion rendered in lumens. Lampburners set the floor for everyone else's guilt, which is precisely why nobody asks what the light is for.

Etym. — lamp + burner, echoing "burning the midnight oil": the flame as performance.

Rel. — dawncred

Novelty check: NEW · checked 2026-11-08

review evidence: wordstoreview/review-batch-3-04-work.md

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Method: Editorial batch review — per-word exact-form web search (WebSearch/Tavily) per docs/REVIEW-criteria.md §2