Etymology

bone fire

Today it means: A fire lit with bones instead of wood, so that when livestock were driven between two such fires the acrid smoke drove off parasites. Full definition →

Middle English banefire
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The story

  1. Middle English · inherited frombanefire
  2. Middle English · inherited frombanefire
  3. English todaybone fire

Inherited from Middle English banefire.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.