inflame

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English enflaumen, also enflamen and inflammen,^[2][3] borrowed from Old French enflamer, also enflammer,^{[4][5][3][6][7]} from Latin īnflammō (“to set on fire, kindle; to rouse, excite”),^[5][4] from in- (“in, into”) and flammō (“to flame”), from flamma (“a flame”), the source of flame.^[5][8][9] The American Heritage Dictionary takes the Latin prefix as an intensive,^[7] and traces the Latin noun to Proto-Indo-European *bhel-.^[7] In Anglo-Norman enflamber is recorded from the first half of the 12th century, for setting on fire and for stirring up emotion alike.^[10] The spelling with in- has usually prevailed since the 16th century.^[4][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

Figurative: to set someone on fire with passion or religious feeling, before 1340 in R. Rolle's Psalter.^[4][5]

Semantic evolution

The English record starts with the figurative sense and reaches the literal one, setting a thing alight, only about 1384, in the early Wycliffite Bible,^[4][2] although both go back to Latin and Anglo-Norman.^[5][10] The idea of fire was transferred to colour by 1477, in Caxton, for lighting up or reddening as if with flame.^[4] The bodily sense, to heat the blood or to cause inflammation, is first recorded in Palsgrave (1530), while Etymonline has the 1520s.^[4][5] From 1607 the verb also meant to make a bad thing worse.^[4] A use for raising a price or charge lasted from before 1687 to 1773.^[4] Intransitive uses came late: growing hot with passion from 1559, being affected by disease from 1607, and catching fire only from 1783.^[4] Johnson (1755) listed kindling first, then desire, aggravating, heating the body morbidly and provoking.^[11] The Shorter Oxford marks setting on fire as now rare.^[12]

Timeline

• before 1340 – to set on fire with passion or strong desire.^[4]
• c. 1340 – to rouse a passion.^[4]
• c. 1384 – to set on fire, kindle.^[4][2]
• 1477 – to redden or light up as if with flame.^[4]
• 1530 – to heat; to cause inflammation in.^[4] Etymonline has the 1520s.^[5]
• 1559 – intransitive, to become hot with passion.^[4]
• 1607 – to aggravate or make worse; intransitive, to become inflamed by disease.^[4]
• 1783 – intransitive, to catch fire.^[4]

Meanings

Verb

1. To arouse strong emotion in; to provoke to anger or passion: The rumour inflamed the waiting crowd.^[13][9][12]
2. To increase or intensify; to aggravate: His remarks only inflamed the quarrel.^[13][4]
3. To cause inflammation in a body part, or to become affected by it.^[13][9][4]
4. To set on fire or kindle; to catch fire.^[13][9][12]
5. To make red, as with anger or heat.^[13][9]

Word family

• inflamer
• inflamingly
• reinflame
• uninflamed

Related words

• flammable
• inflammable
• inflammation
• inflammatory
• flame

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
8. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
10. ^ a b Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
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 Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
13. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins