Woodstove

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A cast-iron or steel heating stove that burns logs or other wood fuel to warm an interior space
2. An enclosed stove designed to burn wood as its primary fuel source for heating a room or building
3. A sturdy metal stove that uses wood as fuel to generate heat for warming homes or other structures

Etymology: A woodstove is about as transparent as compounds get: "wood" plus "stove," with nothing hidden in either part. The "stove" half has an older history of its own. It comes from the Middle English "stove," a heated room or enclosed heating apparatus, and ultimately traces back to Germanic roots that also gave German "Stube," meaning a room. So the word's second element once referred to a warm room rather than the box-shaped appliance we picture today. The "wood" half is the familiar Old English word for timber or a forest, and the compound simply names a stove that burns wood as its fuel. Its meaning therefore rests on the fuel, not on the shape or the way it is built, which is why the term sits comfortably beside "gas stove" or "electric stove" in everyday speech.

Synonyms: wood stove, wood-burning stove