HEARTH

fireplace, hearth, open fireplace

(noun) an open recess in a wall at the base of a chimney where a fire can be built; “the fireplace was so large you could walk inside it”; “he laid a fire in the hearth and lit it”; “the hearth was black with the charcoal of many fires”

hearth, fireside

(noun) home symbolized as a part of the fireplace; “driven from hearth and home”; “fighting in defense of their firesides”

hearth, fireside

(noun) an area near a fireplace (usually paved and extending out into a room); “they sat on the hearth and warmed themselves before the fire”

Source: WordNet® 3.1

Etymology

Noun

hearth (plural hearths)

A brick, stone or cement floor to a fireplace or oven.

An open recess in a wall at the base of a chimney where a fire may be built.

Synonym: fireplace

The lowest part of a metallurgical furnace.

A brazier, chafing dish, or firebox.

(figurative) Home or family life.

(paganism) A household or group in some forms of the modern pagan faith Heathenry.

Anagrams

• Hertha

Source: Wiktionary

Hearth, n. Etym: [OE. harthe, herth, herthe, AS. heor; akin to D. haard, heerd, Sw. härd, G. herd; cf. Goth. haúri a coal, Icel. hyrr embers, and L. cremare to burn.]

1. The pavement or floor of brick, stone, or metal in a chimney, on which a fire is made; the floor of a fireplace; also, a corresponding part of a stove. There was a fire on the hearth burning before him. Jer. xxxvi. 22. Where fires thou find'st unraked and hearths unswept. There pinch the maids as blue as bilberry. Shak.

2. The house itself, as the abode of comfort to its inmates and of hospitality to strangers; fireside.

3. (Metal. & Manuf.)

Definition: The floor of a furnace, on which the material to be heated lies, or the lowest part of a melting furnace, into which the melted material settles. Hearth ends (Metal.), fragments of lead ore ejected from the furnace by the blast.

– Hearth money, Hearth penny Etym: [AS. heoredhpening], a tax formerly laid in England on hearths, each hearth (in all houses paying the church and poor rates) being taxed at two shillings; -- called also chimney money, etc. He had been importuned by the common people to relieve them from the . . . burden of the hearth money. Macaulay.

Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition