Other forms: cinders
A cinder is a piece of burnt matter that will not burn again. Cinders in the grate, burnt to a cinder, a cinder path.
It is what is left when the combustible part is gone, and burnt to a cinder is the fixed phrase for anything overcooked. Cinder paths and cinder tracks were made from the ash of coal fires and were the standard running surface before synthetic tracks. Note cinder toffee, which is honeycomb; and Cinderella, whose name means little ash-girl.
1nouncinderA piece of burnt matter that will not burn again.
“A hot cinder jumped out of the fire and burned a small hole in the rug.”
cinder is burnt residue.
Old English sinder meant slag or dross from metalworking. The spelling was later influenced by the unrelated French cendre, ash, which is where the c comes from.
Proto-Indo-European
*sendʰro- — coagulating fluid, liquid slag, scale, cinder
Proto-Germanic
*sindrą
Proto-West Germanic
*sindr
Old English
sinder — cinder, dross, slag, scoria, dross of iron, impurity of metal
Middle English
cyndyr
English, today
cinder
Built from
From Middle English cyndyr, syndir, synder, sinder, from Old English sinder (“cinder, dross, slag, scoria, dross of iron, impurity of metal”), from Proto-West Germanic sindr, from Proto-Germanic sindrą, sindraz (“dross, cinder, slag”), from Proto-Indo-European sendʰro- (“coagulating fluid, liquid slag, scale, cinder”). Cognate with Scots sinder (“ember, cinder”), West Frisian sindel, sintel (“cinder, slag”), Dutch sintel (“cinder, ember, slag”), Middle Low German sinder, sinter (“cinder, slag”), German Sinter (“dross of iron, scale”), Danish sinder (“spark of ignited iron, cinder”), Swedish sinder (“slag or dross from a forge”), Icelandic sindur (“scoring”), cu сѧдра (“lime cinder, gypsum”). Spelling (c- for s-) influenced by unrelated French cendre (“ashes”). a doublet of sinter.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA