Furnaces

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A device that produces heat to warm buildings or to melt and heat materials in industrial processes
2. Equipment used to generate heat either for living spaces or for processing raw materials at high temperatures
3. An apparatus designed to produce elevated heat levels for heating rooms or for manufacturing purposes

Etymology: "Furnaces" is the plural of "furnace," so the one thing to know about the base word is its path into English. "Furnace" came into Middle English in the 13th century from Old French "fornaise," which descends from Latin "fornax," meaning oven or kiln. Latin "fornax" is itself related to "fornus," the word for baking oven, and the root behind both points to a sense of something that is heated by fire from within. The plural simply adds the regular "-s" ending, as with most English nouns, so its story is the same as the singular's.

Synonyms: heaters, boilers, stoves, ovens, incinerators