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furnace

FUR-niss · noun

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.

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Journey

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

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