firewood

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English firwode, also ferwode,^[2][3] formed from Middle English fir (“fire”) + wode (“wood”),^[2][3] the ancestors of fire and wood.^[4][5][2] It is also written with a hyphen, “fire-wood”.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Wood that is burnt as fuel: 1377–8, in manorial documents.^[4][6] Etymonline dates it to the late 14th century,^[5] and Dictionary.com to 1350–1400.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The meaning has not changed since the first record: wood for burning.^[4][6] Johnson (1755) defined it as "Wood to burn; fewel".^[7] Merriam-Webster also records it as another name for the plant leatherwood.^[2]

Timeline

• 1377 – wood burnt as fuel.^[4][6] Etymonline dates the word to the late 14th century.^[5]

Meanings

Noun

1. Wood cut, split or gathered for burning as fuel, in a fireplace, stove or campfire: We hauled a load of firewood up from the shed.^[8][2][4][9]
2. Another name for leatherwood.^[2]

Related words

• fireplace
• fire
• wood

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ a b c Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
4. ^ a b c d e Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c Kay, Christian; Roberts, Jane; Samuels, Michael; Wotherspoon, Irené, eds. (2009), Historical Thesaurus of the Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford: Oxford University Press; online edition (2024)
7. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
8. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
9. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin