Footstove

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A small portable heating device, often containing hot coals or embers, placed under the feet or skirts to keep a person warm in a cold room
2. A compact box or vessel filled with warm embers that people rested their feet upon to ward off chill in drafty houses or churches
3. An enclosed warming container used in earlier times to heat the feet indoors, typically fueled by charcoal and set beneath a long dress or blanket

Etymology: A footstove is a small portable heater, typically a metal box or pan holding hot embers or coals, that a person rested their feet on to keep warm in a cold room or on a journey. The word is simply a compound of "foot" and "stove," with "stove" in its older sense of a heated enclosure or small warming device rather than the cooking appliance most people picture today. Writers have often used "foot stove" as two words, and "footstove" is the closed-up spelling of the same thing.

Synonyms: foot warmer