inglenook

English

Fireplace with inglenook

Etymology

ingle +‎ nook

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɪŋɡəlnʊk/

Noun

inglenook (plural inglenooks)

1. (chiefly historical, architecture) A corner or nook beside an open fireplace.
   • 1901, Henry James, The Birthplace:

     "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."

2. (chiefly historical, architecture) A bench or seat placed in a fireplace inglenook.