In Hebrew it's called "panas", which meant a candle holding tool in the mishnaic period (1st to 4th century AD).
It is derived from ancient greek "ϕανός" (lamp? light?).
Torch here.
Greeks use this word but I do not think it is the right word because ''φακος'' (fakos) means lens. The right word must be ''φανος'' (fanos) wich is ancient greek and back then they did not distinguish between portable and non-portable lamps so in modern greek it has to be ''φορητος φανος'' (portable lamp).
Influence of Great Alexander still exists..
With the contact problems in torches of today,they are still called flashlights?
Lennart
+ 1
or called a spotty to spot things
i thought you guys call them flashlights on BLF cause most come with silly flashy modes and i thought people on CPF called them flash lights caue there $300 usd lights where flash 
In the Philippines we called them "plasliyt". 
In Thailand we called "ไฟฉาย" .
ไฟ = Fire
ฉาย = Shine
ไฟฉาย = Fire-Shine = same accent
I won't tell you what SWMBO calls all my lights...............
It's not what mine calls them that bothers me. It's where she HIDES them.
Baby, if you're reading this, I know about the box labelled 'yard sale'. It's not a good hiding place.
It's only marginally better than the one labelled 'charity' (if only because I was less suspicious)
Yes, φανός means lamp / light.
I agree, "φανός" or "φορητός φανός" should be the word for flashlight in Greek, I don't know why we call them "φακός". We are using versions of word "φανός" to describe other types of lights, e.g. "φανάρι" can mean the red / green light on the road and can also mean car headlights.