tinder

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English tinder, also tunder and tender,^[2][3] inherited from Old English tynder, also tyndre,^[4][5][6][7] from Proto-Germanic *tundrą (“tinder”).^[8][9] It is cognate with Middle Low German tunder, Dutch tonder, Old High German zuntara (modern Zunder) and Old Norse tundr, the source of tunder and tønder, the forms varying in suffix and gender.^{[4][10][6][8]} Most dictionaries connect it with the verb tendan (“to kindle”), recorded only in compounds such as ontendan,^{[5][3][11][8]} which survives in the dialect verb tind;^[12][6] the OED takes the noun from a weak grade *tund- of the Germanic verb base meaning "to kindle".^[4] Related forms are Gothic 𐍄𐌰𐌽𐌳𐌾𐌰𐌽 (tandjan, “to kindle”) and 𐍄𐌿𐌽𐌳𐌽𐌰𐌽 (tundnan, “to catch fire, start burning”), tenda, tända and zünden.^{[13][5][8][3]} Kroonen derives the noun from a preform Proto-Indo-European *dndʰ-ro-,^[8] but Barnhart notes that the word is not known outside Germanic,^[5] and Ayto and Etymonline call the base of unknown origin.^[14][13] The Old French tondre (“tinder”) is a borrowing from Germanic.^[3] The Middle English tunder forms, still heard in Lincolnshire dialect, may come from the Old Norse word, and the 13th- to 16th-century tender forms were probably influenced by the verb tind.^[4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Any dry substance that catches fire easily from a spark: the first record is a gloss in the Épinal Glossary,^[4] before 800 in Barnhart.^[5] Old English glosses render Latin words for kindling and touchwood with it, and Bosworth–Toller gives the senses "tinder, fuel", literal and figurative.^[7]

Semantic evolution

The figurative use, something that easily flares up or sets off trouble, is as old as the word, appearing in King Alfred's translation of Boethius.^[4] In Middle English the word is first found in Layamon's Brut before 1200,^[5][2] where tinder is laid in nutshells and set on fire.^[2][7] It named especially material made from charred linen or from fungi, which caught the spark struck from a flint with a steel;^[4][10] Weekley links this old way of making fire with the phrase to strike a light.^[12] From 1570 to 1626 it could also mean fire, a spark, or a tinderbox.^[4][10] The tinderbox itself is recorded from 1530, and Shakespeare used it in 1598 for an excitable person.^[5] Johnson (1755) defined tinder as anything very flammable placed to catch fire.^[15] The compound tinder-dry is first recorded in Kipling's The Light That Failed (1891).^[14] In West Yorkshire dialect the word meant ashes, especially of burnt paper.^[16]

Timeline

• before 800 – dry material that catches fire easily, in the Épinal Glossary.^[4][5]
• 9th century – figurative use, in King Alfred's Boethius.^[4]
• before 1200 – Middle English tinder, in Layamon's Brut.^[5][2]
• 1530 – tinderbox.^[5]
• 1570 – fire, a spark, a tinderbox (obsolete by 1626).^[4]
• 1891 – tinder-dry.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. Dry material that catches fire easily from a spark, used to start a fire: The campers gathered dry grass and bark as tinder.^[17][18][4]
2. Anything that easily sets off or spreads unrest, passion or an idea: The rumour was tinder to the angry crowd.^[17][18][4]
3. Formerly, material such as charred linen or dried fungus kept to catch the spark from a flint and steel.^[4][10]

Word family

• tindery
• tinderbox

Related words

• tind
• kindle

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d 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 c d Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
6. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
8. ^ a b c d e Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
9. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
10. ^ 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
11. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
12. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
13. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
14. ^ a b c Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
15. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
16. ^ 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)
17. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
18. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster