Burn
verbTo be on fire, or to damage or destroy something with fire or heat.
How to spell burn
4 letters · 1 syllable
How to pronounce burn
What does burn mean?
- verbTo be on fire, or to damage or destroy something with fire or heat.
- nounAn injury to the skin or flesh caused by fire, heat, or a corrosive substance.
Burn in a sentence
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verb
Dry logs burn faster than green ones.
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noun
The nurse dressed the burn on his forearm.
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verb
Leave the candle unattended and it could burn the tablecloth.
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noun
Run cold water over a minor burn to ease the pain.
Where does burn come from?
Language of origin: Germanic
Burn comes from Old English, where two closely related verbs sat side by side: byrnan, meaning 'to be on fire', and bærnan, meaning 'to set something on fire'. Both descended from a common Germanic root, which is why related forms turn up across the family in words like the German brennen 'to burn'. Over the centuries the two Old English verbs collapsed into the single modern form, and English speakers stopped distinguishing the intransitive 'catch fire' sense from the transitive 'set alight' sense in spelling. The noun for a fire injury grew naturally out of the verb. Quite separately, a different Old English word, burna, meaning a spring or small stream, survives in Scottish and northern English usage and in countless place names; the two meanings happen to share the same modern spelling.
How the word is built
- burn (from Old English byrnan/bærnan: to be on fire, to set on fire)
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