Fyrehous

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. An archaic term for a building or room built around a hearth, where a fire was kept burning for warmth and cooking
2. An old word for a dwelling or chamber centred on a fireplace or open flame used for heating and cooking
3. A historical name for a house or room organised around a fire, serving as the household's source of warmth and light

Etymology: Fyrehous is an Old English compound, built from "fyr" (fire) and "hus" (house), and it meant what it says: a building for fire, most often a hearth or a room with a fireplace in a dwelling. Because the Anglo-Saxon hall's central fire was its heart, the word described the hearth-room itself rather than a building set apart from the home. The spelling has changed a great deal since then. Over the medieval and early modern periods the word softened into "fire-house" and then, as the vowel and final consonant wore down in speech, into the modern "firehouse," used in American English for a fire station. British English kept the older sense of a building for burning rather than a station, and the separate word "fireplace" took over the hearth meaning.