English
stove
Stove may come from Middle Dutch stove.
- Middle Dutchc. 1150–1500stoveuncertain
- Englishearliest quotation 1624same form
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Earlier history uncertain.
Lineage
- Middle Dutchc. 1150–1500stoveuncertain
- Englishearliest quotation 1624same form
Earliest quotation: 1624, Democritus Junior pseudonym; Robert Burt, The Anatomy of Melancholy: […]: “How tedious is it to them that live in…”
The story
From Middle Dutch stove and/or Middle Low German stove (compare Dutch stoof (‘foot stove’), German Low German Stuve, Stuuv), both from Proto-West Germanic *stubu (‘heated room, bathroom, stove’), further origin uncertain.uncertain The source flags this step as uncertain. The Germanic words are very old, and are the source of the Slavic and Romance terms. It is often speculated that the Germanic terms were borrowed from Vulgar Latin *extūfa, *extūfāre (‘to heat with steam’), from Latin ex- + *tūfus (‘hot vapor’), from Ancient Greek τῦφος (tûphos, “fever”).
Linked words
through Medieval Latin stupha
Today it means
noun A heater, a closed apparatus to burn fuel for the warming of a room.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Middle Dutch stove / stove