curfew

Where does the word "curfew" come from? It comes from Old French couvre-feu, and was adopted directly into English (1300s).

Curfew’s story begins in Old French: couvre-feu meant “cover the fire.” Literally cover fire, a medieval evening bell signaling households to bank their fires. It reached English by 1300s as curfew. Broadened from the fire-covering signal to any mandated time restriction. Today, curfew means a regulation requiring people to be indoors after a certain time.

1. Stage 1 · Old French · medieval couvre-feu "cover the fire", literally cover fire, a medieval evening bell signaling households to bank their fires.
2. Stage 2 · English · 1300s curfew "a time after which people must stay indoors", broadened from the fire-covering signal to any mandated time restriction.