flame | Search Online Etymology Dictionary

55 entries found.

square cap worn by Catholic clergy, 1590s, from Italian beretta, from Late Latin birrus, birrum "large cloak with hood;" which is perhaps of Gaulish origin, or from Greek pyrros "flame-colored, yellow."

burner (n.)

late 13c., also as a surname, Brenner, "person who makes bricks," agent noun from burn (v.)). As a name for a part of a lamp where the flame issues, from 1790. Of the heating elements on gas cooking-stoves, by 1885.

erotica (n.)

1820, noun use of neuter plural of Greek erotikos "amatory" (see erotic); originally a booksellers' catalogue heading.

Force Flame

And with a Blonde push

Over your impotence

Flits Steam

[Emily Dickinson, #854, c. 1864]

phlegm (n.)

late 14c., fleem, fleume, "viscid mucus, discharge from a mucous membrane of the body," also the name of one of the four bodily humors, from Old French fleume (13c., Modern French flegme), from Late Latin phlegma, one of the four humors of the body, from Greek phlegma "morbid, clammy bodily humor caused by heat;" literally "inflammation, flame, fire, heat," from phlegein "to burn," related to phlox (genitive phlogos) "flame, blaze," from PIE *bhleg- "to shine, flash," from root *bhel- (1) "to shine, flash, burn."

The modern form of the word is attested by c. 1660. In old physiology it was the "cold, moist" humor of the body and a predominance of it was believed to cause dullness, lethargy, and apathy, hence phlegmatic.

burro (n.)

"donkey," 1800, from Spanish burrico "donkey," from Late Latin burricus "small, shaggy horse," probably from burrus "reddish-brown," from Greek pyrros "flame-colored, yellowish-red," from pyr (genitive pyros) "fire" (from PIE root *paewr- "fire"). Or, for its shaggy hair, from Late Latin burra "wool," a word of unknown origin.

napalm (n.)

1942, from naphthenic + palmitic, names of the two acids used in manufacture of the chemical thickening agent. See naphtha. It was used especially in mixture with gasoline to make a kind of inflammabvle jelly used in flame-throwers, incendiary bombs, etc. The verb, "to destroy with napalm," is by 1950, from the noun. Related: Napalmed; napalming.

Uriah

masc. proper name, in Old Testament, the Hittite husband of Bathsheba; of non-Hebrew (possibly Horite) origin, but explained by folk etymology as Hebrew Uriyyah, literally "flame of the Lord." Uriah Heep, character from Dickens' "David Copperfield" (1850) sometimes is invoked as the type of a hypocritically humble person.

lambent (adj.)

of light, flame, etc., "flowing or running over the surface," 1640s, from a figurative use of Latin lambentem (nominative lambens), present participle of lambere "to lick, lap, wash, bathe," from PIE root *lab-, indicative of smacking lips or licking (source also of Greek laptein "to sip, to lick," Old English lapian "to lick, lap up, to suck;" see lap (v.1)).

lamp (n.)

c. 1200, "vessel containing flammable liquid and a wick to lift it by capillary action when lit," from Old French lampe "lamp, lights" (12c.), from Latin lampas "a light, torch, flambeau," from Greek lampas "a torch, oil-lamp, beacon-light, light," from lampein "to shine," perhaps from a nasalized form of PIE root *lehp- "to light, glow" (source also of Lithuanian lopė "light," Hittite lappzi "to glow, flash," Old Irish lassar "flame," Welsh llachar "glow").

Replaced Old English leohtfæt "light vessel." From 19c. in reference to gas and later electric lamps. To smell of the lamp "be a product of laborious night study," said disparagingly of a literary work, is attested from 1570s (compare midnight oil). The Greek stem lampad- formed a number of compounds, some in English, such as lampadomancy (1650s) "divination from variations in the flame of a lamp."

luminosity (n.)

1630s, "quality of being luminous," from French luminosité (cognate with Medieval Latin luminositas "splendor") or else a native formation from luminous + -ity. Meaning "intensity of light in a color" (of a flame, spectrum, etc.) is from 1876. In astronomy, "intrinsic brightness of a heavenly body" (as distinguished from apparent magnitude, which diminishes with distance), attested from 1906.

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