Stove Once Meant a Heated Room
A stove is an appliance for cooking or heating. The word originally named the room rather than the device.
A stove is an enclosed appliance for cooking or heating. The word named the room first: Middle Low German *stove* meant a heated room or bathhouse, and English used it that way before the sense narrowed to the heating apparatus inside. The same shift happened in German, where *Stube* still means a parlour. *Stove* is also the past tense of *stave*, as in *stove in*, meaning smashed inward — an unrelated word.
- A cooking appliance. *A gas stove.*
- A heater. *A wood stove.*
- A heated room (archaic). *A stove room.*
- Stove in — smashed inward. *The hull was stove in.*
- Middle Low German — *stove*, a heated room. *The source.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Noun | stove | A stove. |
| Plural | stoves | Stoves. |
| Compound | stovetop | The stovetop. |
| Past of stave | stove | Stove in. |
| German | Stube | A parlour. |
- Put the pan on the stove.Cooking.
- The wood stove heats the room.Heating.
- The boat's hull was stove in.Other word.
Cooker vocabulary across the Atlantic
- Stove — American for the whole appliance
- Cooker — the usual British word
- Hob (UK) — stovetop or range (US)
- Range — a stove with oven and hob combined
- Aga — a British brand name used generically
Middle Low German or Middle Dutch *stove*, a heated room or bathhouse, of uncertain further origin.
Did stove originally mean a room?
Yes. It meant a heated room or bathhouse before narrowing to the apparatus that heated it.
What does stove in mean?
Smashed inward, as of a boat's hull. It is the past tense of stave, an unrelated word.