World Wide Words

From the Weird Words section

Inglenook

Pronounced /ˈɪŋɡ(ə)lnʊk/

Almost more than any other, this delightful word for a chimney corner evokes quiet contemplation in a comfortable seat by a warm fire after a hard day, in the company of friends and a pint that’s been created by a brewer with a conscience.

Here’s Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, in The Valley of Fear, evoking the scene: “Finally he lit his pipe, and sitting in the inglenook of the old village inn he talked slowly and at random about his case, rather as one who thinks aloud than as one who makes a considered statement”.

Prosaically, an inglenook is just a seat in the nook, or corner, near the fire, or ingle. We hardly ever encounter the latter word nowadays except in dialect usage or when accompanied by its other half.

Various etymologists have had a stab at a source for ingle. The most common explanation is that it comes either from the Scots Gaelic or Irish aingeal; in the former, it means a light or fire, in the latter a live ember. These associations are too powerful for alternative explanations to stand much chance of success, though some dictionaries hazard an origin in the Latin igniculus, a diminutive of ignis, fire.