hellfire

English

Alternative forms

• hell-fire

Etymology

From Middle English helle fire, helever, from Old English hellefȳr, equivalent to hell +‎ fire. Cognate with West Frisian helfjoer (“hellfire”), Dutch hellevuur (“hellfire”), German Höllenfeuer (“hellfire”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈhɛlˌfaɪə/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈhɛlˌfaɪəɹ/

Noun

hellfire (countable and uncountable, plural hellfires)

1. (uncountable) The fire of Hell.
2. (uncountable) Fire produced by the Devil, or a similar supernatural creature connected to Hell.
3. (countable) A fire that burns with unusual heat or ferocity.
4. (countable, military) Ellipsis of AGM-114 Hellfire.

Alternative forms

• sometimes capitalized, hyphenated, or both: Hellfire, hell-fire, Hell-fire; also as fires of hell

Translations

fire of hell

• Arabic: نَارُ جَهَنَّم f (nāru jahannam)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 地獄之火／地狱之火 (dìyùzhīhuǒ), 業火／业火 (zh) (:yèhuǒ)

• Dutch: hellevuur (nl) n
• Estonian: põrgutuli
• Finnish: helvetin tuli
• French: feu de l’enfer m
• German: Höllenfeuer (de) n
• Greek: πυρ το εξώτερο n (pyr to exótero)
• Hindi: दोजग (hi) (dojag), जहन्नम (hi) m (jahannam)
• Italian: fuoco d'inferno m, fiamme dell'inferno f pl
• Japanese: 業火 (ja) (ごうか, gōka)
• Persian: دوزخ (fa) (dowzax)
• Plautdietsch: Halenfia n
• Polish: ogień piekielny m
• Portuguese: fogo do inferno m
• Russian: гее́нна о́гненная f (gejénna ógnennaja), а́дский ого́нь m (ádskij ogónʹ)
• Serbo-Croatian: паклени огањ m, pakleni oganj m
• Urdu: دوزخ (dozax), جہنم m (jahannam)

fire caused by the Devil

• Finnish: helvetin tuli

intensive fire

• Finnish: pätsi (fi)

Adjective

hellfire (comparative more hellfire, superlative most hellfire)

1. Of or relating to a violent, apocalyptic and ultimate day of reckoning and judgment; usually characterizing a form of Christian preaching.
   • 1902, William James, “Lectures 4 & 5”, in The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature […] , New York, N.Y.; London: Longmans, Green, and Co. […], →OCLC:

     The advance of liberalism, so-called, in Christianity, during the past fifty years, may fairly be called a victory of healthy-mindedness within the church over the morbidness with which the old hell-fire theology was more harmoniously related.

   • 2005, Sang Hyun Lee, The Princeton Companion to Jonathan Edwards, University of Princeton Press, page 253:

     Sermons such as The Eternity of Hell Torments and The Future Punishment of the Wicked Unavoidable and Intolerable, as well as several manuscript examples, serve to mark the distinction between a true hellfire sermon and the proto-eschatological concerns of Sinners [in the Hands of an Angry God], consumed as it is with the here and now.

See also

• fire and brimstone
• purgatory

Interjection

hellfire

1. hell; damn; blast