inglenook

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See also: ingle nook and ingle-nook

English[edit]

WOTD – 20 August 2020

Etymology[edit]

The inglenook of the fireplace in the blue bedroom of Stan Hywet Hall in Akron, Ohio, USA.

From ingle (“open fireplace”) +‎ nook.[1]

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

inglenook (plural inglenooks) (originally Scotland, architecture, chiefly historical)

  1. A nook or corner beside an open fireplace; a chimney corner.
    • 1797 May, E. S. J., “A Song”, in Sylvanus Urban [pseudonym; Edward Cave], editor, The Gentleman’s Magazine, and Historical Chronicle, volume LXVII, part I, number V, London: […] John Nichols, […], →OCLC, page 423, column 2:
      I ſat me in the ingle nook, / And joked wi my luver, / But a' the jokes that I cou'd crack, / The deel a ane could muve her.
    • 1799, Robert Fergusson, “An Eclogue. […]”, in The Poetical Works of R. Fergusson, Paisley, Renfrewshire: R. Smith, […], →OCLC, page 80:
      The ingle-nook ſupplies the ſimmer-fields, / An' aft as mony gleefu' maments yields.
    • 1813, George Steuart Mackenzie, “Political Economy”, in General View of the Agriculture of the Counties of Ross and Cromarty. […], London: […] Sherwood, Neely, and Jones, […], →OCLC, section 8 (Healthiness of the Country, Mode of Living, &c.), pages 326–327:
      Could we find a Hamilton to write a tale in Gaelic, for the ingle-nooks of our cottagers, we might expect a speedy reform. The Highlanders are fond of tales, and there does not seem to be a better method of pointing out to them the advantages of activity and cleanliness, than dispersing among them a few stories drawn up with ability.
    • 1815 December 1, [Walter Scott; James Hogg], “The Lifting of the Banner”, in The Ettricke Garland; being Two Excellent New Songs on the Lifting of the Banner of the House of Buccleuch, at the Great Foot-ball Match on Carterhaugh, Dec. 4, 1815, Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co., →OCLC, page 5:
      May the Forest still flourish, both Borough and Landward, / From the hall of the Peer to the herd's ingle-nook; / And huzza! my brave hearts, for Buccleuch and his standard, / For the King and the Country, the Clan and the Duke.
    • 1822 May 1, “The Smuggler”, in The Atheneum; or, Spirit of the English Magazines, volume 11, Boston, Mass.: Munroe and Francis, […], →OCLC, page 103, column 1:
      [O]ne [chair], distinguished by capacious arms, a high stuffed back, and red cushions, was placed close to the ingle nook, the accustomed seat of the father of the family.
    • 1838 December 22, “the Old Sailor” [pseudonym], “Robin Hood’s Bay”, in William, Robert Chambers, editors, Chambers’s Edinburgh Journal, volume VII, number 360, Edinburgh: […] W[illiam] S[omerville] Orr and Co., […], published 1839, →OCLC, page 378, column 2:
      Alice was removed to the residence of the older Noland, where she was welcomed with a rough but honest kindness, and old Margaret was installed in the ingle nook.
    • 1851, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter XIII, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume III, London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC, page 343:
      It was remembered but too well how the dragoons had stalked into the peasant's cottage, cursing and damning him, themselves, and each other at every second word, pushing from the ingle nook his grandmother of eighty, and thrusting their hands into the bosom of his daughter of sixteen; [...]
    • 1860, W[illiam] Harrison Ainsworth, “Ovingdean Grange. A Tale of the South Downs.”, in Bentley’s Miscellany, volume XLVII, London: Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, 6th part (The Devil’s Dyke), chapter III (Of the Guests at the Poynings’ Arms), page 350:
      The Cavalier was supported by the assiduous host into a large, comfortable-looking house-place, with a wood fire blazing upon the hearth—deep inglenooks on either side of the chimney—and a couple of cozy benches with high backs calculated to keep off all draught advancing far into the room, with a long and strong oak table between them.
    • 1903 February 26, Henry James, “The Birthplace”, in The Better Sort, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →OCLC, chapter VII, page 296:
      It is in this old chimney corner, the quaint inglenook of our ancestors—just there in the far angle, where His little stool was placed, and where, I dare say, if we could look close enough, we should find the hearthstone scraped with His little feet—that we see the inconceivable child gazing into the blaze of the old oaken logs and making out there pictures and stories, see Him conning, with curly bent head, His well-worn hornbook, or poring over some scrap of an ancient ballad, some page of some such rudely bound volume of chronicles as lay, we may be sure, in His father's window-seat.
    • 1914, Philip B. Chatwin, “Kyre Wyard”, in Transactions, Excursions and Report, for the Year 1913, volume XXXIX, Birmingham, Warwickshire: […] Hudson & Son [for the Birmingham Archaeological Society, Birmingham and Midland Institute], […], →OCLC, page 60:
      The chimneys are most striking, with the upper part in brickwork, and with fine bold bases of stone, forming inside comfortable ingle nooks.
    • 1957, Gerald Brenan, “The High Mountains and Guadix”, in South from Granada, 1st paperback edition, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, published 1980, →ISBN, page 153:
      Seated in my barber's chair in the ingle-nook, with a book and a cup of coffee on the table in front of me, I would hear coming down the chimney, as though the village was situated on an island in the sky, a succession of slow, somnolent sounds: [...]
    • 2000, Judith Knuth, edited by Paula Marshall, Fireplace Decorating & Planning Ideas, Des Moines, Iowa: Better Homes and Gardens Books, →ISBN, page 47:
      In its purest form, the inglenook is distinctly set off, a sort of room within a room. [...] The twin benches of many inglenooks face each other at right angles to the hearth. This arrangement gives the best view of the fire, but space considerations may dictate building seating along the fireplace wall instead.
    • 2014, Eric Freeze, “Dead Weight”, in Hemingway on a Bike, Lincoln, Neb., London: University of Nebraska Press, →ISBN, page 80:
      He [a dog] wants the warmth of our home, to curl up in our inglenook and lap from his water bowl.

Alternative forms[edit]

Translations[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ “ingle-nook, n.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, 1900; “inglenook, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Further reading[edit]

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