# 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:** 18\ **Page:** 2
**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, 5:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-that-means-something-damaged-by-fire/811048/21 "2018-03-23T05:22:43Z")
Flambeau? ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2018, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-that-means-something-damaged-by-fire/811048/22 "2018-03-23T05:33:47Z")
I’m still not quite clear if you’re looking for a noun or an adjective, or if you want to focus on its agency or on the results. Fireball? All-consuming fire? Fire-consumed? Smouldering embers? ---
**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, 7:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-that-means-something-damaged-by-fire/811048/23 "2018-03-23T07:24:52Z")
Inflamed, hot as a pistol, hot tamale, hot pepper, spicy, solar, red hot Mama.? Eta. Not sure what this is but, firebrand. ---
**Author:** ![Poysyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Poysyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Poysyn)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2018, 7:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-that-means-something-damaged-by-fire/811048/24 "2018-03-23T07:46:57Z")
Consumed maybe? ---
**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, 7:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-that-means-something-damaged-by-fire/811048/25 "2018-03-23T07:51:06Z")
Incendiary? ---
**Author:** ![Dereknocue67](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/6de8d8/32.png) [@Dereknocue67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dereknocue67)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2018, 8:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-that-means-something-damaged-by-fire/811048/26 "2018-03-23T08:02:38Z")
If it’s insured, the word is “money”. ---
**Author:** ![mikecurtis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mikecurtis/32/3284_2.png) [@mikecurtis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mikecurtis)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2018, 8:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-that-means-something-damaged-by-fire/811048/27 "2018-03-23T08:15:13Z")
If something is completely consumed by fire all that remains is carbon dioxide and water. Some of the terms for the other products of fire include ash, brand, char, cinder, clinker, coke, ember, scorch, soot. . . for a more dramitic effect there’s **Pyrolysis** > [@](#): > > a thermal decomposition of materials at elevated temperatures in an inert atmosphere such as a vacuum gas. It involves the change of chemical composition and is irreversible. The word is coined from the Greek-derived elements pyro “fire” and lysis “separating”. so maybe pyrolytic detritus . . . mc ---
**Author:** ![UDS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecae2f/32.png) [@UDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2018, 8:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-that-means-something-damaged-by-fire/811048/28 "2018-03-23T08:35:41Z")
_Debris_ is a term for anything that has been broken down or destroyed, though not necessarily by fire. ---
**Author:** ![PlaceboTarget](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/placebotarget/32/1073_2.png) [@PlaceboTarget](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PlaceboTarget)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2018, 10:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-that-means-something-damaged-by-fire/811048/29 "2018-03-23T10:56:47Z")
Cremated, incinerated. ---
**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, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-that-means-something-damaged-by-fire/811048/30 "2018-03-23T14:42:31Z")
Use some take on the “scourge” or “cleansing fire” from the Prophets (or is it Revelation?) Hell, bring in Moses and the bush, but you’re getting seriously complicated metaphors here… ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2018, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-that-means-something-damaged-by-fire/811048/31 "2018-03-23T15:37:29Z")
> [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](#): > > It’s supposed to be metaphorical for a passionate personality that destroyed a lot of people and things in its wake. Hot mess? ---
**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, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-that-means-something-damaged-by-fire/811048/32 "2018-03-23T18:47:47Z")
Thank you. I revised the paragraph so I don’t need that word any more, but if I need more fire words I’ll come back here. (Though I could use a single-word noun that means “cruel person” or “spiteful person”. Do any exist?) ---
**Author:** ![mikecurtis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mikecurtis/32/3284_2.png) [@mikecurtis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mikecurtis)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2018, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-that-means-something-damaged-by-fire/811048/33 "2018-03-23T21:06:10Z")
malicious and malevolent come to mind. . .so does thesaurus. . . mc sorry those are adjectives. . . how about ogre or sadist or blackguard ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2018, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-that-means-something-damaged-by-fire/811048/34 "2018-03-24T00:05:16Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > Flambeau? Does this qualify as punting the question? (_LAMBEAU!_) ---
**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 24, 2018, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-that-means-something-damaged-by-fire/811048/35 "2018-03-24T00:16:11Z")
> [@Derleth](#): > > Does this qualify as punting the question? > > (_LAMBEAU!_) Ha. That’s funny. That word actually means a kind of torch. I wouldn’t want to punt that. ---
**Author:** ![DavidwithanR](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3bc359/32.png) [@DavidwithanR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidwithanR)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2018, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-that-means-something-damaged-by-fire/811048/36 "2018-03-24T00:49:45Z")
Sauron was definitely a meanie. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Cicero](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cicero/32/3594_2.png) [@Cicero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cicero)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2018, 9:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-that-means-something-damaged-by-fire/811048/37 "2018-03-25T09:07:15Z")
> [@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.” I was once a “Receiver of Wrecks” and was required to understand the difference between those terms ☹ ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2018, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-that-means-something-damaged-by-fire/811048/38 "2018-03-25T13:28:54Z")
> [@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. Could you do something with [pyroclastic flow](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyroclastic_flow)? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-word-that-means-something-damaged-by-fire/811048.md?page=1)