hearth

Meaning

1. 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.
2. A hearthstone, either as standalone or as the floor of an enclosed fireplace or oven.
3. A fireplace: an open recess in a wall at the base of a chimney where a fire may be built.
4. The lowest part of a metallurgical furnace.
5. A brazier, chafing dish, or firebox.
6. (figuratively) Home or family life.
7. (Germanic) A household or group in some forms of the modern pagan faith Heathenry.

Synonyms

fireplace

fireside

stove

home

🏠

fire

🔥

oven

open fireplace

kitchen

furnace

cooking place

siege

fire side

household

fire-place

ash

powder

sole

stone

🪨

tank

well

by the fire

Vesta

cooking stones

fire pit

melting chamber

finger grate

furnace chamber

fireplace in house

open furnace

furnace bed

bottom of the hearth

oven sole

oven bottom

oven hearth

altar

furnace cavity

bed plate

big

bottom

chimney

cinder

crucible

dust

firebox

focus

forge

grate

hearthstone

life

mind

Translations

foyer

hogar

🏠

Herd

focolare

haard

Feuerstelle

fogón

cheminée

âtre

Kamin

llar

🏠

haardstede

ocak

open haard

chimenea

Pronounced as (IPA)

/hɑːθ/

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English: herth

Inherited from Old English: heorþ

Cognate with Western Frisian: hurd

Cognate with Dutch: haard

Cognate with German: Herd

Cognate with Swedish: härd

In summary

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.