Curfew From a Command to Cover Fires

Hey there, you have A Way with Words.

Hello, this is Joel Capps. How are you?

Doing well. How are you?

I am excellent, thank you for asking.

And where are you?

I am in Alabama.

You know, when I was growing up, my mom, she would tell me that you’ve got a curfew.

And she would tell you something.

And then she would say, not only do you have a curfew, but I want you to come home and tell me what curfew means.

And I said, I can do that now, Mom.

You know, what time I had to be home?

She said, no, I think it’s deeper than that.

And it was her way of feeding my brain, if you will.

She was a Southern lady who didn’t allow you to leave your mind idle.

You may.

No.

And, you know, we say so many things.

I love y’all’s show.

Because you don’t just go around and say things because you just have heard them.

You know the meaning of it.

And I found out that it was curfew is an item that was put over one’s fire in the 1700s to keep the thatch roof from being set on fire and the whole town burning down.

So I learned that it was a curfew, meaning I think the French word of cover fire.

Am I right?

Yep.

Yep.

So and there you have it.

So, you know, little things like that my mom taught me.

And I just found it amazing that all of our words, I guess, have meanings from the 1700s or so, right?

Oh, yeah.

This one’s older.

This one actually predates French, although we did get it directly from the French.

You can find it in Latin as well.

But, yeah, it was so that you put your fires out at night because an unattended fire could set your dwelling on fire.

You could burn the whole place down.

And people would forget and leave them lit.

So it was kind of this established law and practice.

Curfew literally comes from a French word meaning to cover your fire.

And not the shooting kind of firing, but the actual flame firing.

Right.

And my mom would paint a picture, you know, of when I told her what it meant.

She said, could you imagine living in those days and having to cover your fire up and in freezing afterwards?

Yeah, Joe, it’s older than the 1700s.

William the Conqueror made it a rule in the 11th century.

Really?

Yep.

That is amazing.

Thank you guys so much.

So you shed even more than what my mom did.

Oh, there’s no wind to it.

We don’t cover our fire ever.

We don’t hide it under a bushel or anything.

Joe, thanks for calling.

We appreciate it.

Thanks for sharing your memories.

Thank you all.

Thank you all.

Bye-bye.

You know, Grant, what a gift Joel’s mother gave him,

That they would have conversations about words,

And not just about words, but where they come from.

We’d love to do that with you too. 877-929-9673.