ignite

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin ignītus (“set on fire”), the past participle of ignīo (“to set on fire, make red-hot”),^[2][3][4][5] from ignis (“fire”).^[2][6][7][8] The OED and Barnhart take the verb as partly a conversion of the older adjective ignite, intensely hot, itself from the same Latin participle.^[3][5] Etymonline and Ayto trace the Latin noun to Proto-Indo-European *egni- (“fire”), also the source of Lithuanian ugnis (“fire”);^[2][9][10] Klein adds uguns.^[10] From the same Latin verb come ignition and, through the adjective igneus (“of fire, fiery”), igneous.^[9][2][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

To make something intensely hot, to make it glow with heat: the first record is in John Evelyn's Diary under the year 1666,^[3] and Merriam-Webster and Barnhart date the verb to 1666.^[4][5] Etymonline dates it to the 1660s.^[2] The adjective ignite, glowing with heat or figuratively ardent, is older: the OED records it from 1575 to 1704,^[3] Etymonline from the 1550s,^[2] and Barnhart and the Shorter Oxford from the 15th century.^[5][7]

Semantic evolution

At first the verb was mostly a chemists' term for heating a substance strongly, often to the point of combustion or chemical change.^[3][7] Johnson (1755) defined it as "to kindle; to set on fire", with a quotation about heating chalk in a crucible, and in 1773 labelled it "a chymical term".^[11] The popular sense, to set fire to or kindle, is recorded from 1823,^[3] and the intransitive sense, to catch fire, from 1818, in Todd's edition of Johnson's dictionary.^[3][2] From 1871 it could mean to light up as if on fire,^[3] and Collins records the figurative sense of stirring up or provoking something, such as a debate.^[12] In electrical use it means to strike an arc (1917).^[3]

Timeline

• 1575 – adjective ignite, intensely hot, glowing (obsolete by 1704).^[3]
• 1666 – verb, to make intensely hot, to heat to the point of combustion.^[3][4][5]
• 1818 – intransitive, to take fire, begin to burn.^[3][2]
• 1823 – to set fire to, kindle.^[3]
• 1871 – figurative, to light up as if on fire.^[3]
• 1917 – to strike an electric arc.^[3]

Meanings

Verb

1. To set fire to something, or to catch fire and begin to burn: A spark from the grill ignited the dry grass.^[12][4][3]
2. To heat a substance strongly, especially to the point of combustion or chemical change.^[12][3][7]
3. To cause a fuel mixture to burn, as in an engine or rocket.^[4]
4. To stir up or provoke something; to set off: The ruling ignited protests across the country.^[12]

Word family

• ignitable
• ignitability
• unignited
• igniter
• ignitron
• reignite
• self-ignite

Related words

• ignition
• igneous
• ignis fatuus

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
7. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
10. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
11. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
12. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins