# hearth

Pronunciation: US say "HAHRTH" /hɑɹθ/; UK say "HAHTH" /hɑːθ/

## Noun

1. The place in a home where a fire is or was kept for heating and cooking, especially a fireplace at the foot of a chimney.
   - Simple: The fireplace in a home, or the place where a fire is kept for warmth and cooking.
   - _In the medieval hall, a central hearth warmed the room and cooked the evening meal._
   - _Archaeologists found the remains of a stone hearth in the middle of each house._
2. A hearthstone, whether standing alone or forming the floor of an enclosed fireplace or oven.
   - Simple: The flat stone that a fire sits on, on its own or inside a fireplace or oven.
   - _He knelt on the cold hearth and swept up the ashes._
   - _The baker slid the loaves straight onto the hot hearth of the brick oven._
3. One's home, or the life a family shares there.
   - Simple: Home, and life together with your family.
   - _After years at sea, he longed for the comforts of hearth and home._
   - _Politicians love to talk about protecting the hearth from the pressures of modern life._
4. The lowest part of a furnace used for smelting or otherwise working metal.
   - Simple: The bottom part of a big furnace used to melt metal.
   - _Engineers shut down the blast furnace to reline its hearth with fresh firebrick._
   - _Slag floats on top of the molten iron gathered in the hearth._

## Other meanings

- (noun) A container that holds a fire or burning fuel, such as a brazier or firebox.
- (noun) In some forms of Heathenry, a modern pagan faith, a household or local group of followers.

## Origin

Old English heorþ became Middle English herth or herthe. It goes back through Proto-West Germanic *herþ to Proto-Germanic *herþaz, and possibly to Proto-Indo-European *kerh₃- ("heat, fire"). Its cognates include German Herd, Dutch haard, Swedish härd and West Frisian hurd.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/hearth (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).