hearth
/ˈhɑɹθ/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: 3.10 in modern English
12
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
1
Syllables
5
Unique Chars
Meaning
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.
noun
The lowest part of a metallurgical furnace.
noun
A brazier, chafing dish, or firebox.
Example Sentences
- "For by the hearth the children sit Cold in that atmosphere of Death, And scarce endure to draw the breath, Or like to noiseless phantoms flit: […]"
- "cooking on an open hearth"
- "When the flames at last began to flicker and subside, his lids fluttered, then drooped ; but he had lost all reckoning of time when he opened them again to find Miss Erroll in furs kneeling on the hearth and heaping kindling on the coals, and her pretty little Alsatian maid beside her, laying a log across the andirons."
- "To put it simply, he seems to me to be starting out to harm the city, from its very hearth, by setting out to wrong you."
- "Asatru is practised all over Northern Europe and also in North America. Like Druidry, it is organized into bodies with sub-groups, the hearths."
- "Smaller localized groups known as 'hearths' meet regularly, and are comparable, in size and function, with a Wiccan 'Coven' or Druidic 'Grove'."
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/.
Origin
- Source language: Middle English
- First known use: First attested in the Old English period
Word Breakdown
- Root: herth, heorþ, *herþ, *herþaz, *kerh₃-
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈhɑɹθ/
- British English: /ˈhɑːθ/