Literal Translation
To burn the candles from both ends
Actual Meaning
To be wasteful
Etymology
Bejaïa is an oil port located in Algeria, at the end of the gulf of the same name, east of Greater Kabylie. Currently the capital of the district of Sétif, the city was formerly known as ‘Bougie’. It gave its name first to the fine wax it supplied, imported into France as early as the 14th century, and then to the candles made from this wax. A particularly expensive form of lighting, candles were a luxury item in the Middle Ages. At that time, they were referred to as ‘Bougie candles’.
Is this the candle to which the expression refers, burning it at both ends to provide better light, which was then the prerogative of the wealthy who were not concerned about waste? This is unlikely for two reasons: first, it is impossible to light a candle at both ends, as the wick does not protrude beyond either end, and even if it did, try holding a candle burning at both ends upright! It must therefore have been another type of candle: dried rush stems dipped in hardened tallow come to mind, which, when burned, gave off a faint, yellowish light and an unpleasant odour. The rush stem was held in the iron clamp of a holder called a rush burner, the candlestick of the poor. Those who were slightly less poor dipped both ends of the rush in animal fat and burned them simultaneously, the stem being pinched in the middle.
Regardless of whether it is a rich man’s candle or a poor man’s rush burner, saying that one is burning it at both ends can be understood, figuratively, in two ways: ‘spending without counting’ or ‘indulging in too many excesses, without fear of ruining one’s health or mortgaging one’s life expectancy’. In the latter sense, it find a well-known metaphor, that of the lit candle symbolising life burning until it goes out.