hearth
UK /ˈhɑːθ/ · US /ˈhɑɹθ/ noun
Forms hearths
- noun The place in a home where a fire is or was traditionally kept for home heating and for cooking, usually constituted by at least a hearthstone and often enclosed to varying degrees by any combination of reredos, fireplace, oven, smoke hood, or chimney.
- noun A hearthstone, either as standalone or as the floor of an enclosed fireplace or oven. “cooking on an open hearth”
- noun A fireplace: an open recess in a wall at the base of a chimney where a fire may be built.
- noun The lowest part of a metallurgical furnace.
- noun A brazier, chafing dish, or firebox.
- noun (figurative) Home or family life.
- noun (Germanic paganism) A household or group in some forms of the modern pagan faith Heathenry.
Synonyms
Etymology
From Middle English herth, herthe, from Old English heorþ, from Proto-West Germanic *herþ, from Proto-Germanic *herþaz, possibly from Proto-Indo-European *kerh₃- (“heat; fire”). Cognate with West Frisian hurd, Dutch haard, German Herd, Swedish härd. First attested in the Old English period.
The modern spelling is from an Middle English/Early Modern English /hɛːrθ/, from earlier /heːrθ/, levelled from inflected forms with /rð/ where the vowel would have been lengthened. The reflex of this pronunciation was preserved in obsolete dialectal /ˈhɜɹθ/.
Webster’s 1913
- noun The pavement or floor of brick, stone, or metal in a chimney, on which a fire is made; the floor of a fireplace; also, a corresponding part of a stove.
- noun The house itself, as the abode of comfort to its inmates and of hospitality to strangers; fireside.
Etymology [OE. harthe, herth, herthe, AS. heor; akin to D. haard, heerd, Sw. härd, G. herd; cf. Goth. haúri a coal, Icel. hyrr embers, and L. cremare to burn.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “hearth”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details