fireplace

Etymology

It is formed from English fire + place.^[2][3][4][5] The OED compares the earlier fireside.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A place for a fire, especially the open-fronted structure at the base of a chimney that holds a domestic fire: 1611, in R. Peake's translation of Serlio's book on architecture.^[2] Other dictionaries date it later: Dictionary.com to 1645–55,^[5] Merriam-Webster to 1669,^[6] the Shorter Oxford to the late 17th century^[3] and Etymonline to about 1700.^[4]

Semantic evolution

Merriam-Webster notes that the fireplace held an open fire for heating and formerly also for cooking, and extends the word to a metal stove with a smoke pipe and to an outdoor structure for a cooking fire;^[6] in Australia it is an approved place for cooking outdoors, as by a roadside.^[7] In Surrey dialect too big for one's fireplace meant beyond one's means.^[8] In the American charcoal-burning industry the fireplace was the space in the middle of the stacked wood in a kiln where the fire was started.^[9] American hot-rodders called a car's grille a fireplace in the late 1950s.^[10]

Timeline

• 1611 – a place for a fire at the base of a chimney.^[2]
• 1645–55 – Dictionary.com's dating.^[5]
• 1669 – Merriam-Webster's first known use.^[6]
• c. 1700 – Etymonline's dating.^[4]
• 1958 – hot-rodders' slang for a car's grille.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. An open recess in the wall of a room, at the base of a chimney, for holding a fire; a hearth: They hung their stockings over the fireplace.^{[7][6][11][2]}
2. A metal container with a smoke pipe, used for the same purpose.^[6]
3. An outdoor structure of brick, stone or metal for an open fire, as for cooking.^[6][11]
4. (Australia) An approved place for cooking outdoors, as beside a road.^[7]

Word family

• fireplaced

Related words

• fireside

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
8. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
9. ^ Cassidy, Frederic G. & Joan Houston Hall (eds.) (1985–2002), Dictionary of American Regional English, vols I–IV, Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press
10. ^ a b Dalzell, Tom; Victor, Terry, eds. (2013), The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, 2nd ed., London: Routledge
11. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin