cinder

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English sinder, also cinder,^[2][3] inherited from Old English sinder (“slag, dross of metal”),^{[4][5][6][7][8]} from Proto-Germanic *sindrą,^[1][5][6] the source also of Old Saxon sinder (“slag, dross”), Old Norse sindr, Middle Low German sinder, Dameli sinder, Dutch sintel, Old High German sintar and the German Sinter.^{[5][9][7][10]} Etymonline and Barnhart trace it to Proto-Indo-European *sendhro- (“coagulating fluid”), the source also of a Slavic word for stalactite.^[5][6][10] The spelling with c- replaced s- in the 16th century under the influence of the unrelated French cendre (“ashes”),^{[7][11][12][5]} which comes from Latin cinis (“ashes”), the source of incinerate.^[12][5][6] The Middle English Dictionary gives both the Old English and the Old French words as sources of the Middle English noun,^[2] and Johnson derived it from French alone.^[13]

Earliest recorded meaning

Slag, the dross thrown off by metal in the furnace: in the Old English Corpus Glossary,^[4] before 800 according to Barnhart.^[6] The Middle English form synder is recorded before 1398 in Trevisa's translation of Bartholomaeus Anglicus,^[6] and the place name Synderhelle already in 1239.^[6]

Semantic evolution

The association with French cendre changed the meaning as well as the spelling.^[14][4] From the "slag" of metalworking, the word came to mean the residue left by burning: ashes in general about 1400, in Mandeville's Travels;^[4][6] from 1530 it also meant a small piece of coal that has stopped burning but can burn again.^[4][6][5] The OED notes that in ordinary language cinders are now distinct from ashes, though dialects still use the word for ashes in general.^[4] Johnson (1755) defined it as "a mass ignited and quenched, without being reduced to ashes".^[13] For a time the word was also used for the ashes of a cremated body (before 1547 to 1658).^[4] The geological sense, volcanic scoria, dates from 1774,^[4][5] and cinder cone from 1849.^[5] The "slag" sense survives as a technical term.^[4] In slang, from 1864, a cinder was a dash of spirits added to tea or soda water.^[4][15]

Timeline

• Old English – slag, dross of metal.^[4][6]
• c. 1400 – in plural, the residue of burning; ashes.^[4][6]
• 1530 – a small piece of coal that has stopped burning but can burn again.^[4][6]
• 1535 – an ember.^[4]
• before 1547 – in plural, the ashes of a cremated body (obsolete by 1658).^[4]
• 1628 – verb, to burn to cinders.^[4]
• 1774 – volcanic scoria.^[4][5]
• 1864 – slang, spirits added to tea or soda water.^[4][15]

Meanings

Noun

1. A piece of coal or wood that has stopped flaming but has not burnt to ash, and can burn further; an ember: The wind blew cinders from the bonfire across the field.^[16][3][4]
2. In plural, ashes; the residue of something burnt.^[3][4]
3. The slag left in a metal furnace; dross.^[3][16][4]
4. A scale thrown off in forging metal.^[3]
5. In plural, fragments of lava thrown out by a volcano; scoria.^[16][4]

Verb

1. (rare) To burn to cinders.^[16][3][4]

Word family

• cindery
• cinderlike
• cinder block
• cinder cone

Related words

• sinter
• incinerate
• Cinderella

References

1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
7. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
9. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
10. ^ a b Holthausen, Ferdinand (1934), Altenglisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, Heidelberg: Carl Winter
11. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
13. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
14. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
15. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
16. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins