hearthstone

English

Alternative forms

• hearth-stone

Etymology

From hearth +‎ stone.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈhɑɹθstoʊn/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈhɑːθstəʊn/
• Hyphenation: hearth‧stone

Noun

hearthstone (plural hearthstones)

1. A flat stone used to form a hearth.
   • 1847 December, Ellis Bell [pseudonym; Emily Brontë], chapter I, in Wuthering Heights: […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Thomas Cautley Newby, […], →OCLC:

     I took a seat at the end of the hearthstone opposite that towards which my landlord advanced […].

2. (by extension) The fireside, home life.
   • 1846, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Good-Bye, line 15:

     I am going to my own hearth-stone, / Bosomed in yon green hills alone,

   • 1861, Abraham Lincoln, First inaugural address:

     The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battle-field, and patriot grave, to every living heart and hearth-stone, all over this broad land

   • 1876, Richard J. Hinton, English Radical Leaders, page 55:

     The denominational relations of a household will shape the future political positions of the young men growing around the hearth-stone, just as they did those of their fathers

3. A soft kind of stone used to whiten doorsteps, scour floors, etc.
   • 1861, Henry Mayhew, London labour and the London Poor, volume 1, page 29:

     Lastly, there is the hearth-stone barrow, piled up with hearth-stone, Bath-brick and lumps of whiting

Translations

the stones around a fire

• Galician: lareira (gl) f
• Irish: teallach m
• Kilivila: kailagila
• Maori: pārua
• Norn: årn m

Verb

hearthstone (third-person singular simple present hearthstones, present participle hearthstoning, simple past and past participle hearthstoned)

1. (transitive) To scour, as a floor, with hearthstone.
   • 1876, Hallberger's Illustrated Magazine, page 202:

     We've a woman come in twice a week, to scrub, and red-brick, and hearthstone, and black-lead, and the rest we manage ourselves.

References

• “hearthstone”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney and Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1914), “hearthstone”, in The Century Dictionary: An Encyclopedic Lexicon of the English Language, revised edition, volume II, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.