needfire

[need-fahy^uhr]

noun

1. spontaneous combustion.

2. luminescence, as of rotted or decayed wood.

Word History and Origins

Origin of needfire¹

First recorded in 1525–35; need + fire

Example Sentences

That, however, served to kill the popular belief in needfire, and even when the terrible ravages of the rinderpest, foot and mouth disease, and pleuro-pneumonia, were emptying the pockets and breaking the hearts of the farmers, not one of them thought of reviving the old “cure.”

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The last time, so far as the writer can find, the practice was reported in the newspapers was this paragraph in the Patriot of July 25th, 1834:—“A sort of murrain, or pestilential fever, is at present prevalent in the county of Westmorland, the popular remedy for which is the fumigation of the infected animals with the smoke of needfire, accompanied by certain mystic signs.”

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The “needfire,” which has been witnessed by many people who are not yet old, was probably the last remnant of fire-worship in this country.

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The term “needfire” seems to be a corruption of “neatfire,” neat cattle being an old and common term.

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The needfire, as described by Sir E.B.

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