Forms: Sc. 5– bane-, 6 bain-, 5–8 bone-, 6– bonfire; also 6 bonne, boane-, boun-, bond-, 7 boon(e, 8 burnfire; north. and Sc. 5–9 bane-, 6 bainfire. [f. BONE sb. 1 + FIRE = fire of bones. The etymological spelling bone-fire, Sc. bane-fire, was common down to 1760, though bonfire was also in use from the 16th c., and became more common as the original sense was forgotten. Johnson in 1755 decided for bonfire, ‘from bon good, (Fr.) and fire.’ But the shortening of the vowel was natural, from its position; cf. knowledge, Monday, collier, etc. In Scotland with the form bane-fire, the memory of the original sense was retained longer; for the annual midsummer ‘banefire’ or ‘bonfire’ in the burgh of Hawick, old bones were regularly collected and stored up, down to c. 1800.]
† 1. A fire of bones; a great fire in which bones were burnt in the open air. Obs.
(The 17th-c. quotations are chiefly allusive, implying a knowledge that bon(e)fires ought to burn bones.)
1483. Cath. Angl., 20/1. A banefyre, ignis ossium.
1493. Festyvall (W. de W., 1515), 105. In worshyppe of saynte Johan the people waked at home, & made iij maner of fyres. One was clene bones and noo woode, and that is called a bone fyre.
a. 1552. in Leland, Brit. Coll., I. p. lxxvi. In some parts of Lincolnshire … on some peculiar nights, they make great fires in the public streets of their Towns with bones of oxon, sheep, &c. which are heaped together before. I am apt to believe … that from hence came the original of Bonefires.
1586. Marlowe, 1st Pt. Tamburl., III. iii. Making bonfires for my overthrow. But, ere I die, those foul idolaters Shall make me bonfires with their filthy bones.
1684. Dineley, Dk. Beaufort’s Progr. Wales, 154. A fire of joy … called a Bonfire … being part wood and part bones.
[1655. Fuller, Ch. Hist., IX. 52. Both parties … would in a bonefire of their generall joy, have burnt this unhappy bone of dissention cast betwixt them.
1674. W. Stanley, Rom. Horseleech, 82 (Skeat). Causing all the bones of Becket to be burnt … and how his arms should escape that bonefire is very strange.]
† 2. A fire in which to consume corpses, a funeral pile, a pyre. (The ordinary transl. of L. pyra, rogus in 16–17th c.) Obs.
1552. Huloet, Bonefyre … pyra.
1565. Golding, Ovid’s Met., VII. Or els without solemnitie were burnt in bone-fires hie.
1583. Stanyhurst, Æneis, IV. (Arb.), 119. Madlye she [Dido] scaleth Thee top of her banefyer.
1639. Horn & Robotham, Gate Lang. Unl., xcvii. § 961. The dead corps is buried: they of old made a bone-fire, and therein burnt it.
1658. Sir T. Browne, Hydriot., ii. 22. Burning [was] perhaps not fully disused till Christianity fully established gave the finall extinction to these sepulchrall Bonefires.
3. A fire for immolation; a fire in which heretics, bibles, or proscribed books were burnt. Still familiarly applied to a great fire for burning up thorns, brushwood, or rubbish, though, as the purpose is not now specifically considered as constituting a bonfire, not distinguished from sense 4 b.
1581. J. Bell, Haddon’s Answ. Osor., 483/2. You would have made boanefiers with ye blood of many good Preachers.
1611. Speed, Hist. Gt. Brit., VI. ix. (1632), 79. Their holy Bibles cast into Bone-fires.
1638. Shirley, Mart. Soldier, IV. ii. in Bullen, O. Pl. (1882), I. 228. Methinks Christians make the bravest Bonefires of any people in the Universe.
1640. Brome, Sparagus Gard., I. v. 132. Making a Bon-fire in Smithfield.
1653. A. Wilson, Jas. I., 47. He [James I.] thanks them for the Bonefire they made of certain Papers.
1678. Butler, Hud., III. II. 1543.
| And, to the largest Bonefire riding, | |
| Th’ have roasted Cook already, and Pride-m. |
1711. Addison, Spect., No. 98, ¶ 3. Many of the Women threw down their Head-dresses in the Middle of his Sermon, and made a Bonfire of them.
1845. Sarah Austin, Ranke’s Hist. Ref., II. 9. Luther’s writings were collected and publicly burned; but the emperor might be seen to smile ironically as he passed these bonfires.
† b. (Ireland) An incendiary fire. Obs.
1633. T. Stafford, Pac. Hib., ii. (1821), 231. That … the County of Clare might be freed from bonfires. Ibid., xvii. 183. They departed, before they had made any Bonfiers in Mounster.
4. A large fire kindled in the open air for a celebration, display or amusement:
a. (orig.) on certain anniversaries, esp. on the eves of St. John and St. Peter (cf. Fr. feu de la Saint-Jean, Ger. Johannis feuer, and BALE-FIRE). These were originally bone-fires in sense 1 (where cf. quot. 1493), and appear to have come down from heathen times.
1493. Privy Purse Exp. Hen. VII., in Brand, Pop. Ant. (1870), I. 174. To the makyng of the bonefuyr on Middesomer Eve, 10s.
1570. B. Googe, Pop. Kingd., IV. 54 b. Then doth the ioyfull feast of John the Baptist take his turne, When bonfiers great with loftie flame, in every towne doe burne.
1575. Ord. Cooks Newcastle, in Brand, Pop. Ant. (1870), I. 178. The said Felloship of Cookes shall yearelie … mainteigne and keep the Bone-fires … that is to say, one Bone-fire on the Even of the Feast of the Nativitie of St. John Baptist … and the other on the Even of the Feast of St. Peter the Apostle.
1581. Sc. Acts Jas. VI. (1597), § 104. Setteris out of Bane-fyers, singers of Carrales … and of sik vthers superstitious and Papisticall rites.
1600. Rowlands, Lett. Humours Blood, iv. 65. At leaping ore a Midsommer bon-fier.
1867. in Brand, Pop. Ant. (1870), I. 177. Bonfires are still made on Midsummer Eve, in the northern parts of England and in Wales.
b. (In general modern use) in celebration of some event of public or local interest, or on some festive occasion, as a victory, jubilee, the birth or marriage of the heir to an estate, etc.; but also applied to any great blazing fire made for amusement, or combining amusement with the burning of rubbish, thorns, weeds, etc. (Cf. sense 3.)
(The Fifth of November bonfires combined various senses of the word.)
1530. Palsgr., 199/2. Bonne fyre, fev de behovrdis.
1556. Chron. Gr. Friars (1852), 32. Commandement … that there shulde be a gret bonfyer at Powlles churche dore … for the good tydynges.
1558. Maitland, Quenis Maryage. All burrows townis … To maik bainfyres, fairseis and clerk-playis.
1582. North, Gueuara’s Diall Pr., 73 b. Great bondfires.
1591. Raleigh, Last Fight Rev., 17. Celebrate the victorie with bonefiers in euerie town.
1603. Drayton, Bar. Warres, IV. xxiii. With Bells and Bone-fires welcomes her ashore.
1660. Boyle, New Exp. Phys. Mech., xxxvii. 309. The People … testified their Joy by numerous Bon-fires.
1710. Addison, Whig-Exam., No. 2, ¶ 9. The mob has huzza’d round bonefires.
1736. Byrom, Rem. (1856), II. I. 35. You have had burnfires and bells and shooting and drinking.
1772. Priestley, Inst. Relig. (1782), I. 384. Our custom … of making bonfires on the fifth of November.
1836. W. Irving, Astoria (1849), 365. They built a great bonfire … and men and women danced round it.
1848. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., I. 631.
c. attrib. or comb.
1596. Shaks., 1 Hen. IV., III. iii. 47. Thou art a perpetuall Triumph, an euerlasting Bone-fire-Light.
1690. Hist. Wars Ireland, 111. Bonfire-Works … were no sooner lighted, but the Allarm-Signal was given.
