# Etymology of "range" for oven **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 22, 2005, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-range-for-oven/332297 "2005-11-22T19:07:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2005, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-range-for-oven/332297/1 "2005-11-22T19:07:15Z")
My Google-fu is weak on this one. Does anyone know why kitchen ovens are sometimes called “ranges”? ---
**Author:** ![Nametag](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nametag/32/406_2.png) [@Nametag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nametag)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2005, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-range-for-oven/332297/2 "2005-11-22T20:22:09Z")
> [@El\_Kabong](#): > > My Google-fu is weak on this one. Does anyone know why kitchen ovens are sometimes called “ranges”? From [World Wide Words](http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-ran1.htm): > [@](#): > > The sense is similar to the one we still use in phrases like range of mountains for a set of things all in a row. It derives from the Old French ranc, which may in turn have come from a prehistoric Germanic khrengaz for a circle, from which we also get our word ring. We borrowed the Old French as rank, which we still use in the sense of a set of things in order, as in military or social ranks or a taxi rank, and as range, which shares some senses. Range was first applied in the cooking sense in the fifteenth century; it seems to have been first used for a collection of hearths and ovens set in a row under one chimney, as one might find in the kitchen of a large house serving many people. Gas range, by the way, is an American term: in Britain, we’d talk about a gas stove or a gas cooker, though these usually have ovens included (we do have kitchen range, but only for solid-fuel cookers like the Aga which have a number of cooking positions, including ovens). ---
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2005, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-range-for-oven/332297/3 "2005-11-22T21:47:42Z")
Many thanks. ---
**Author:** ![Cheesesteak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cheesesteak/32/3694_2.png) [@Cheesesteak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheesesteak)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2005, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-range-for-oven/332297/4 "2005-11-22T22:45:08Z")
Just to clarify a bit, a kitchen range is not the same thing as an oven. An oven is a box you put food in to heat. A cooktop is a collection of burners or elements that you set a pan/pot on top of to heat. A range is a single unit that contains both an oven and a cooktop. ---
**Author:** ![Manduck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manduck/32/256_2.png) [@Manduck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Manduck)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2005, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-range-for-oven/332297/5 "2005-11-23T00:06:56Z")
I thought that a range and a cooktop were the same thing, and that the unit that cotains a range and an oven is called a stove. ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2005, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/etymology-of-range-for-oven/332297/6 "2005-11-23T01:38:18Z")
Go high-end appliance shopping, someplace you get to choose between freestanding, slide-ins, and built-ins. A cooktop is a burner-only installation (no oven down below - obviously not available freestanding). An oven is the thing with the big door, temperature and BAKE/BROIL/OFF knobs, and optional self-cleaning feature. A range combines the two. A stove is (presumably) something that sits in a corner, can also be used for room heating, and burns wood, coal, or corncobs.