hearth  (härth)
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n.1. a. The floor of a fireplace, usually extending into a room and paved with brick, flagstone, or cement. b. A fireplace: a blazing fire in the hearth. 2. Family life; the home. 3. Metallurgy a. The lowest part of a blast furnace or cupola, from which the molten metal flows. b. The bottom of a reverberatory furnace, where ore is exposed to the flame. 4. The fireplace or brazier of a blacksmith's forge.
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The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2020 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
Indo-European & Semitic Roots Appendices
Thousands of entries in the dictionary include etymologies that trace their origins back to reconstructed proto-languages. You can obtain more information about these forms in our online appendices:
Indo-European Roots
Semitic Roots
The Indo-European appendix covers nearly half of the Indo-European roots that have left their mark on English words. A more complete treatment of Indo-European roots and the English words derived from them is available in our Dictionary of Indo-European Roots.
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