I wonder if the word "bonfire" is very often used in the English language. Maybe in different contexts than just the burning of something for fun, which is the main translation as I understood. I consider this a kind of exotic word if I think about the usage of the word in my native tongue (German).
I came across this, because I noticed that my son is now learning this word in school (sixth grade) and I remembered that I have learned the word "bonfire" in my school time (some 30 years ago) too in a somewhat early stage of learning English. This seems to indicate some basic usage or importance of this word, since it is delivered to learners on a beginner level.
It seems to me that the use of this word is rather limited and I didn't came across this word very often myself in the last 30 years. Though I have to admit that I am not using the English language very often in conversation with native speakers. I mainly use English by reading and a bit by writing, mostly in a tech context.
So I am really curious if there is something more about the "bonfire", that I have not recognized yet or if maybe there is some mysterious affection of German school publishers to this word.
As an anecdote from the past, I can tell that I found it cool that I knew the meaning of the name of the then somewhat popular German band "Bonfire" :-), but my son does not have a gain like that, since the band is maybe a little out of fashion, at least for the younger ones…
Best Answer
Bonfire is in common usage in the UK today, where it means any outdoor fire, normally built from wood or rubbish. As commenters have noted, in American and Canadian usage, a bonfire is specifically a large outdoor fire, but it's still a perfectly common word.
Some think that ‘bonfire’ is a mix of the French "bon" meaning "good" and the English Anglo-Saxon “fire”. Early believers included the British lexicographer Samuel Johnson, who offered up that etymology in his 1755 Dictionary of the English Language.
Johnson defined bonfire as:
He derived the word from the French bon and the English word fire - the phenomenon of combustion manifested in light, flame, and heat.
However, the etymology was changed in the 1890 Webster's International Dictionary, where it is shown as derived from Middle English bonefire, meaning literally "a fire of bones."
The earliest appearance of the word is glossed ignis ossium — Latin for "fire of bones." A citation from the 15th century confirms that this may not be just a learned folk-etymology:
“But in worship of Saint John, the people woke at home and made three types of fires. One was clean bones and no wood and that is called a bonefire…”
In medieval times ‘Bonefires’ were probably common towards the end of the agricultural year, when any farmer needing to eke out their winter fodder would slaughter some of their livestock, keeping only breeding pairs with a view to replacing their stock the following spring. Having preserved the meat, rendered the fat, and treated the hides, they were left with the carcasses – the bones. These were then burnt on “bone fires” so as to convert these otherwise useless bones into potash fertiliser… This winter tradition is probably one reason a bonfire is used to celebrate Guy Fawkes' Night in the UK, on 5th November each year.
There are a few key points in favour of the "bone fire" etymology: