Etymograph

English

hellfire

Hellfire comes from Middle English helle fire, and goes back to Old English hellefȳr.

  1. Old Englishc. 450–1150hellefȳr1
  2. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500helle fire1
  3. Englishearliest quotation 1902hellfire1

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

  1. 1 Wiktionary, English hellfire
  2. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1902, William James, Lectures 4 & 5: “The advance of liberalism, so-called, in Christianity, during the…”.

Lineage

  1. Old Englishc. 450–1150hellefȳrWiktionary, English hellfire
  2. Middle Englishc. 1150–1500helle fireWiktionary, English hellfire
  3. Englishearliest quotation 1902hellfireWiktionary, English hellfire. Earliest quotation in Wiktionary’s entry: 1902, William James, Lectures 4 & 5: “The advance of liberalism, so-called, in Christianity, during the…”

A compound of hell + fire

Proto-Germanic *haljō ‘hell’

Proto-West Germanic *hallju ‘the netherworld’

Old English hel

Middle English hel

English hell

Proto-Indo-European *péh₂wr̥

…

Proto-Germanic *fuïr

Proto-West Germanic *fuir

Old English fȳr ‘fire’

Middle English fyr

English fire

Every English word from Old English hellefȳr

Today it means

noun The fire of Hell.

Sources

Sources: Wiktionary, “hellfire”. By Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0, via kaikki.org (dump of Oct 3 2026); text adapted and restructured. Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word. License.

Etymograph / Old English hellefȳr / hellfire

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