Etymologically
Log in

fuel

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 15 October 2026 at 20:10. This address is a permanent link to this version.
Changes in this edit History

Pronunciation

  • IPA: /ˈfjuː.əl/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English feuel or fewel,[2][3] borrowed from Old French fouaille (“fuel for heating; bundle of firewood”) (Anglo-French fuaille),[2][4][5] from Medieval Latin focālia (“the right to demand material for making fire”),[2][5] from Latin focālia “brushwood for fuel”, neuter plural of Latin focālis (“of a hearth”),[2] from focus (“hearth, fireplace”), in Late Latin “fire”.[2][4][6] It is related to focus, foyer and curfew.[4][7]

Earliest recorded meaning

Material for burning: about 1200 in Etymonline,[2] probably before 1200 in the Ancrene Riwle according to Barnhart.[4] The OED's earliest examples are from the 14th-century romance of Richard Coer de Lion.[8]

Semantic evolution

The meaning has shifted from where the fire was laid to what was burned.[7] The figurative sense, something that feeds a passion or excitement, is from about 1580.[8][2] Food as fuel for the body is from 1876,[2][8] a combustible liquid for an internal combustion engine from 1886,[2][8] rocket propellant from 1922, and nuclear fuel from 1946.[8] Fuel oil is from 1882.[2] The verb, to feed with fuel, is from about 1592, in Marlowe's Massacre at Paris;[4][8] “to take on fuel” is from 1880.[2] Fuel poverty, the inability to afford adequate heating and power, is found from the 1970s.[7]

Timeline

  • c. 1200 – material for burning.[2][4]
  • c. 1580 – figurative.[8]
  • c. 1592 – verb.[4][8]
  • 1876 – food for the body.[2]
  • 1886 – engine fuel.[2][8]
  • 1922 – rocket fuel.[8]
  • 1946 – nuclear fuel.[8]
  • 1970s – fuel poverty.[7]

Modern meaning

Noun

  1. A material such as wood, coal, gas or oil burned to produce heat or power.
  2. Fissile material used in a nuclear reactor.
  3. Food, as a source of energy for the body.
  4. Something that feeds or intensifies an emotion or conflict.

Verb

  1. To provide with fuel, or to take on fuel.
  2. To stimulate or intensify: to fuel speculation.

Word family

  • fueler
  • biofuel
  • defuel
  • fuelwood
  • nonfuel
  • refuel
  • synfuel
  • fossil fuel

Usage notes

In Herefordshire dialect fuel meant garden produce.[9]

References

  1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  3. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  5. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  6. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ a b c d Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  9. ^ 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)