balefire
|bale-fire|
🇺🇸
/ˈbeɪlfaɪər/
🇬🇧
/ˈbeɪlfaɪə/
destructive/harmful fire
Etymology
'balefire' originates from Old English elements, specifically from 'bāl' and 'fȳr', where 'bāl' meant 'burning, funeral pyre, harm/evil' and 'fȳr' meant 'fire'.
'balefire' developed in Middle English from the Old English combination of 'bāl' + 'fȳr' (Middle English forms such as 'balefyr' or similar) and eventually became the modern English 'balefire'.
Initially it referred to a harmful or portentous fire (including funeral pyres or signal fires); over time it came to mean a large destructive fire in literary use, and more recently has a specialized magical sense in fantasy fiction.
Meanings by Part of Speech
Noun 1
a large, destructive fire; a conflagration. In older or literary usage it can also mean a signal fire or a funeral pyre.
The entire harvest field was lost to a balefire that swept through before dawn.
Synonyms
Noun 2
a term in modern fantasy fiction (notably The Wheel of Time) for a potent, often supernatural fire that destroys or erases its target (sometimes described as removing it from the fabric of history).
The Aes Sedai unleashed a balefire that annihilated the darkspawn in an instant.
Synonyms
Last updated: 2026/01/05 05:38