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furnace

FUR-niss · noun

Proto-Indo-EuropeanProto-ItalicLatinOld FrenchMiddle EnglishEnglish

Origin

Furnace traces back to Proto-Indo-European *gʷʰer- ('warm'), which combined with a suffix to form *gʷʰr̥nós, becoming Proto-Italic *xʷornos and then *fornos, giving Latin fornus. A separate PIE suffix *-eh₂ks became Latin -āx, and together they formed Latin fornāx, meaning oven or kiln.

Journey

Latin fornāx passed into Old French as fornais, then into Middle English as forneys, before settling into English as furnace.

Related words

The facts here don't give us a documented English cognate to point to, so it's honest to say none is confirmed by this record.

More words

From Proto-Italic

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