Other forms: kindled, kindling, kindles
To kindle is to set alight, or to stir a feeling into life. Kindle a fire, kindle interest, kindled a friendship.
The figurative sense is the commoner now, and kindling interest is what any good teacher does. The noun kindling is the small wood between tinder and logs, and rekindle means to bring back something that had gone out.
1verbkindleTo set alight, or to stir a feeling into life.
“We kindled a fire with dry leaves and small sticks.”
kindle is a lighting.
Old Norse kynda means to set fire to, taken into Middle English.
Proto-Germanic
*kundijaną
Old Norse
kynda — to inflame
Middle English
kyndelen
English, today
kindle
From Middle English kyndelen, from Old Norse kynda (“to inflame”), from Proto-Germanic kundijaną.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA