Etymologically
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fireplace

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 31 October 2026 at 15:40. This address is a permanent link to this version.
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Pronunciation

  • UK: /ˈfaɪəpleɪs/[1]
  • US: /ˈfaɪɹpleɪs/[1]

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
  • 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