# Is there a word that means something damaged by fire? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 22, 2018, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-that-means-something-damaged-by-fire/811048 "2018-03-22T23:23:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/malleus_incus_stapes/32/3293_2.png) [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malleus_Incus_Stapes)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2018, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-that-means-something-damaged-by-fire/811048/1 "2018-03-22T23:23:45Z")
Need answer fastish (well, by the end of the month, anyway). ---
**Author:** ![Alley\_Dweller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alley_dweller/32/430_2.png) [@Alley\_Dweller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alley_Dweller)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2018, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-that-means-something-damaged-by-fire/811048/2 "2018-03-22T23:28:25Z")
charred/singed/fire-ravaged remains. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2018, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-that-means-something-damaged-by-fire/811048/3 "2018-03-22T23:29:12Z")
Scorched or uh,er…burned-up? ---
**Author:** ![DavidwithanR](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3bc359/32.png) [@DavidwithanR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidwithanR)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2018, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-that-means-something-damaged-by-fire/811048/4 "2018-03-22T23:42:33Z")
Do you mean a single noun for “fire-damaged item”? I don’t think there is one in general. I’ve seen particular descriptive words for particular _kinds_ of burnt items, like “hulk” for the burnt-out carcass of a ship or perhaps for a similar large burnt frame of a structure, but none of them qualified as “the word for a fire-damaged item in general” AFAIR. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2018, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-that-means-something-damaged-by-fire/811048/5 "2018-03-23T00:02:19Z")
Something tells me that OP may be on to something, perhaps as some term of art in the insurance industry–cf. flotsam, jetsam, lagan, and derelict, which generally you or I would call “shit that was somebody’s but now is floating around the ocean.” ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2018, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-that-means-something-damaged-by-fire/811048/6 "2018-03-23T01:02:02Z")
I’ve scanned two lists of firefighting terms and can only find “salvage”–property that needs to be protected from fire/smoke/water. There doesn’t seem to be a term for “refuse.” ---
**Author:** ![Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/malleus_incus_stapes/32/3293_2.png) [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malleus_Incus_Stapes)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2018, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-that-means-something-damaged-by-fire/811048/7 "2018-03-23T01:12:54Z")
> [@Leo\_Bloom](#): > > Something tells me that OP may be on to something, perhaps as some term of art in the insurance industry–cf. flotsam, jetsam, lagan, and derelict, which generally you or I would call “shit that was somebody’s but now is floating around the ocean.” What I’m on to is that writing is hard. Especially when you’re trying to be all atmospheric and can’t just bluntly say what you mean. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2018, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-that-means-something-damaged-by-fire/811048/8 "2018-03-23T01:29:35Z")
What is the item you are trying to describe as burnt up? ---
**Author:** ![Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/malleus_incus_stapes/32/3293_2.png) [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malleus_Incus_Stapes)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2018, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-that-means-something-damaged-by-fire/811048/9 "2018-03-23T01:44:46Z")
It’s supposed to be metaphorical for a passionate personality that destroyed a lot of people and things in its wake. Not my metaphor, really; Tolkien came up with the whole fire theme and I’m just taking it to the logical conclusion. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2018, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-that-means-something-damaged-by-fire/811048/10 "2018-03-23T02:18:20Z")
Phoenix rising from the ashes. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2018, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-that-means-something-damaged-by-fire/811048/11 "2018-03-23T03:51:53Z")
Would something simple and straightforward as “ash-heap” work for your purposes? ---
**Author:** ![DavidwithanR](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3bc359/32.png) [@DavidwithanR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidwithanR)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2018, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-that-means-something-damaged-by-fire/811048/12 "2018-03-23T03:56:22Z")
So, this personality has ended up ruined by its own consuming passion, having first taken out a number of others along the way? ---
**Author:** ![DavidwithanR](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3bc359/32.png) [@DavidwithanR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidwithanR)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2018, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-that-means-something-damaged-by-fire/811048/13 "2018-03-23T03:59:41Z")
It seems perhaps unpoetic to be a cinder. Unless your name is Ella. 🙂 (sorry) 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![DavidwithanR](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3bc359/32.png) [@DavidwithanR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidwithanR)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2018, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-that-means-something-damaged-by-fire/811048/14 "2018-03-23T04:05:44Z")
A crispy critter? 🆒 It sounds very Tolkien-esque - I’m even sure I remember a crispy critter being mentioned in Beowulf. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2018, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-that-means-something-damaged-by-fire/811048/15 "2018-03-23T04:05:52Z")
Solar flare, fire and brimstone, fury, blue flame, steamy, boiling. ---
**Author:** ![Banksiaman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banksiaman/32/3334_2.png) [@Banksiaman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banksiaman)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2018, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-that-means-something-damaged-by-fire/811048/16 "2018-03-23T04:32:26Z")
[Cinder](https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/cinder?a=british)and [ember](https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/ember?a=british)seem to work best. They both reference the state of something having burned and become something else. Maybe like the apocryphal multiple Inuit words for snow, you could make reference to a pyromaniacal culture like indigenous Australians, who harnessed fire for land management. Their languages have multiple words for landscape effects of fire [for an [example](https://blogs.crikey.com.au/northern/2015/01/10/waru-fire-in-australian-aboriginal-art/) from the Australian Western Desert, scroll to the blue box about half way down]. I’ll bet they would have a word you could use. ---
**Author:** ![MikeG](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mikeg/32/4329_2.png) [@MikeG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MikeG)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2018, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-that-means-something-damaged-by-fire/811048/17 "2018-03-23T04:39:28Z")
Charred shell or remains Ravaged husk Still smoking Pile of embers ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2018, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-that-means-something-damaged-by-fire/811048/18 "2018-03-23T04:40:52Z")
Scorched? Singed? Incinerated? Depends on the type of damage, really. ---
**Author:** ![DorkVader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/73ab20/32.png) [@DorkVader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DorkVader)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2018, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-that-means-something-damaged-by-fire/811048/19 "2018-03-23T05:12:49Z")
> [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](#): > > It’s supposed to be metaphorical for a passionate personality that destroyed a lot of people and things in its wake. Not my metaphor, really; Tolkien came up with the whole fire theme and I’m just taking it to the logical conclusion. “He looked thoughtful as he meandered over his mental landscape, revisiting the charred remnants of people he had known and the scorched earth of the places he had been, all seared by the bloody, scalding passions of his now cauterized soul” Is this the sort of thing you are looking for? ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2018, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-that-means-something-damaged-by-fire/811048/20 "2018-03-23T05:15:13Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Would something simple and straightforward as “ash-heap” work for your purposes? For a personality, perhaps “ash-hole”? Q: What do you call a guy with no arms or legs lying in a fireplace/ A: Ashley or Bernie… [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-that-means-something-damaged-by-fire/811048.md?page=2)