Flame is the middle rung between native fire and Latin conflagration. It came into English in the mid-1300s from Anglo-French flaume, from Latin flammula, "small flame," a diminutive of flamma. The root means "to shine, flash, burn," and it is the same one behind flagrant, and behind conflagration itself — so the French word and the Latin word at the top of the ladder are the same word arriving twice, three centuries apart.
The spelling wobbled for a long time. Middle English wrote it flaume, flaumbe, flambe, flamme and flame before settling, which is normal for a French borrowing of that period. The romantic sense is old and was borrowed along with the word: an old flame is attested in English from the 1640s, but Old French and Latin both used their versions for the fire of love and even for the beloved person.
flame (n.) Middle English flaume , also flaumbe , flambe , flame , flamme , mid-14c., "a flame;" late 14c., "a flaming mass, a fire; fire in general, fire as an element;" also figurative, in reference to the "heat" or "fire" of emotions, from Anglo-French flaume , flaumbe "a flame" (Old French flambe , 10c.), from Latin flammula "small flame," diminutive of flamma "flame, blazing fire." This is reconstructed to be from PIE *bhleg- "to shine, flash," from root *bhel- (1) "to shine, flash, burn." The meaning "a sweetheart, object of one's passion" is attested from 1640s; the figurative sense of "burning passion" was in Middle English, and the nouns in Old French and Latin also meant "fire of love, flame of passion," and, in Latin "beloved object." The Australian flame-tree is from 1857, so called for its red flowers. also from mid-14c. flame (v.) Middle English flaumen , also flaumben , flomben , flamben , flamen , flammen , c. 1300 (implied in flaming "to shine (like fire), gleam, sparkle like flames;" mid-14c. as "emit flames, be afire, to blaze," from Anglo-French flaumer , flaumber (Old French flamber ) "burn, be on fire, be alight" (intransitive), from flamme "a flame" (see flame (n.)). Transitive meaning "to burn, set on fire" is from 1580s. Meaning "break out in violence of passion" is from 1540s; the sense of "unleash invective on a computer network" is from 1980s. Related: Flamed ; flaming . To flame out , in reference to jet engines, is from 1950. also from c. 1300
flame came in through Norman French, and its spelling follows that family's conventions.
On the register ladder
English kept all three words for this idea, one from each layer, and the rung is itself the cue: the native word is blunt and concrete, the French one polite, the Latin one formal or technical.
| Old English | French | Latin |
|---|---|---|
| fire | flame | conflagration |
Norman French in the spelling guide · guess another word's family