page_title: Curfew bell
section_title: Etymology
hierarchical_section_title: Curfew bell / Etymology
caption_attribution_description: Couvre-feu utensil for extinguishing the fire in a fireplace
context_page_description: The curfew bell was a bell rung in the evening in Medieval England as the curfew signal for everyone to go to bed.
  A bell was rung usually around eight o'clock in the evening which meant for them to cover their fires — deaden or cover up, not necessarily put out altogether. The usual procedure was at the sound of the curfew bell the burning logs were removed from the centre of the hearth of a warming fire and the hot ashes swept to the back and sides. The cold ashes were then raked back over the fire so as to cover it. The ashes would then keep smoldering giving warmth without a live fire going. The fire could easily be reignited the next morning by merely adding logs back on and allowing air to vent through the ashes. A benefit of covering up the fire in the evening was the prevention of destructive conflagrations caused by unattended live fires, a major concern since at the time most structures were made of wood and burned easily. Voltaire, in his Universal History, notes the curfew bell acted as an ancient police on fire prevention in towns of the northern hemisphere.
context_section_description: The English word curfew is from old French carre-feu or cerre-feu. These initial French words later derived into couvre-feu. The word was again later turned into cover-feu in the Norman language after the conquering of the English. Each of these meant to cover the live flaming fire. There was even a metal utensil cover known as the "couvre-feu", normally only found in houses of the well-to-do. It resembled a shield and was used to be put over the live fire when the curfew bell rang. The curfew bell was known as ignitegium or peritegium bell in the medieval low Latin. Daines Barrington shows that in an old Scottish poem published in 1770 the word curfew is written curphour.
caption: Couvre-feu utensil shield for putting out fireplace fires
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