English
hearth
Hearth comes from Middle English herth ‘a hearth’, and goes back to Proto-West Germanic *herþ.
- Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*herþ‘hearth, fireplace’reconstructed
- Old Englishc. 450–1150heorþ
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500herth‘a hearth’
- Englishearliest quotation 1850hearth
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Earlier history uncertain.
Lineage
- Proto-West Germanicc. 200–500 CE*herþ‘hearth, fireplace’reconstructed
- Old Englishc. 450–1150heorþ
- Middle Englishc. 1150–1500herth‘a hearth’
- Englishearliest quotation 1850hearth
Earliest quotation: 1850, [Alfred, Canto XX: “For by the hearth the children sit Cold in…”
first attested First attested in the Old English period (as stated in the etymology)
The story
First attested in the Old English period. The modern spelling is from an Middle English/Early Modern English /hɛːrθ/, from earlier /heːrθ/, levelled from inflected forms with /rð/ where the vowel would have been lengthened. The reflex of this pronunciation was preserved in obsolete dialectal /ˈhɜɹθ/.
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *kerh₃- ‘heat’
Today it means
noun The place in a home where a fire is or was traditionally kept for home heating and for cooking, usually constituted by at least a hearthstone and often enclosed to varying degrees by any combination of reredos, fireplace, oven, smoke hood, or chimney.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Proto-West Germanic *herþ / hearth