Curfew

How to spell curfew

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce curfew

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does curfew mean?

1. nounAn official order requiring people to remain indoors during specified hours, or the deadline by which someone must be home.

Curfew in a sentence

• The city imposed a curfew after the riots, so the streets were empty by ten.

• As a teenager she had a strict curfew and had to be home by eleven.

Where does curfew come from?

Language of origin: French

Curfew comes from the Old French word cuevrefeu, later couvrefeu, which literally meant 'cover fire'. It joined couvrir, meaning 'to cover', with feu, meaning 'fire', the same root that survives in modern French 'feu' and in English words such as 'fuel'. In medieval towns a bell was rung in the evening as a signal for people to bank or extinguish their household fires, reducing the risk of a blaze spreading through timber buildings overnight. English borrowed the word in the 1300s, and over time the meaning shifted from the fire-covering signal itself to any official order requiring people to stay indoors after a set hour. The spelling trap lies in that buried French ancestry: the modern '-few' ending preserves 'feu' (fire), so it has nothing to do with the English word 'few', and the opening 'cur-' is a worn-down form of 'couvrir' rather than anything to do with 'cure'.

How the word is built

• cur- (from Old French couvrir: to cover)
• -few (from Old French feu: fire)