curfew
UK[ˈkɜːfjuː]US[ˈkɜːrfjuː]
n
A rule or law that requires people to stay indoors between specific times, usually at night.
n
The time by which someone, especially a child, must be home in the evening.
n
Historically, a signal (like the ringing of a bell) announcing the time to extinguish fires and lights for the night.
Morpheme Breakdown
curfew
curfew
Unsegmentable
Etymology
The word 'curfew' has a direct and vivid origin story. It entered English from the Anglo-Norman French 'coeverfu' or 'cuevrefeu', which literally meant 'cover fire'. This term itself came from Old French 'covrir' (to cover) and 'feu' (fire). The practice and the term date to medieval times when a bell would be rung in the evening as a signal for inhabitants to cover or extinguish their hearth fires as a precaution against conflagrations in tightly packed wooden towns. Over centuries, the meaning broadened from the specific signal and fire-related act to signify any official regulation requiring people to be off the streets and indoors by a certain hour, retaining its core sense of an enforced evening restriction.
Analysis
Structure: curfew (Unsegmentable)
The word is a loanword from Anglo-Norman French and is not productively segmented into smaller meaningful parts in modern English.
Examples
The city imposed a strict curfew during the state of emergency.
Her parents gave her a 10 p.m. curfew on weekends.
In the historical novel, the ringing of the curfew bell marked the end of the day's activities.