chimney

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈt͡ʃɪmni/, /ˈt͡ʃɪməni/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English chimenei, borrowed from Old French cheminee (“fireplace; chimney”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} from Late Latin camīnāta (“fireplace; room with a fireplace”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} from Latin camīnus (“furnace, hearth, flue”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} from Ancient Greek κάμινος (káminos, “furnace, oven”),^[2][3][4][5] a word of uncertain origin.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Figuratively, the furnace of hell or the mouth of a volcano (about 1280);^[3][4] a fireplace or hearth (before 1330).^[7][3]

Semantic evolution

The Late Latin word first meant a room with a stove.^[4] In English chimney first meant a fireplace or hearth, a sense surviving in chimney corner and chimney piece,^[7][4] and then the passage or flue by which smoke escapes (c. 1400) and the part of the flue above the roof (c. 1340).^[7][4] Middle English also had native words such as smoke-hole.^[4] The name was extended to the funnel of a locomotive or steamship, the glass tube round a lamp flame, and a narrow vertical cleft in rock.^[7][2][6] The phrase to smoke like a chimney dates from 1840.^[7]

Timeline

• c. 1280 – the furnace of hell (figurative).^[3][4]
• before 1330 – a fireplace, hearth.^[7][3]
• c. 1340 – the part of a flue above the roof.^[7]
• c. 1400 – the flue for smoke.^[7]
• 1611 – chimney sweep.^[3]
• 1840 – to smoke like a chimney.^[7]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. A vertical structure containing a passage or flue through which smoke and gases escape from a fire or furnace; also, the part of it that rises above a roof.
2. A smokestack, as of a ship or locomotive.
3. A glass tube enclosing the flame of a lamp.
4. Something resembling a chimney, such as a narrow vertical cleft in a rock face.

Word family

• chimneypiece
• chimney breast
• chimney pot
• chimney sweep

Related words

• flue
• hearth
• furnace

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Harper, Douglas, Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c d Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1999), 2nd ed., New York: Random House
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press