ember

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a small piece of wood or coal that remains hot and glows after a fire has stopped flaming

   One ember still glowed beneath the gray ash.

2. 2
   noun

   a small surviving trace of a feeling, conflict, activity, or hope

   An ember of resentment remained after the dispute.

From Middle English embre, from Old English ǣmyrġe, ultimately from a Proto-Germanic compound. The b is intrusive: it arose as the unstressed vowel of the second syllable disappeared, easing the resulting consonant sequence. The figurative sense extends a fire's last glow to a lingering feeling or force.

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