burn: [OE] English has two separate words burn. The commoner, relating to ‘fire’, is actually a conflation of two Old English verbs: birnan, which was intransitive, and bærnan, which was transitive. Both come ultimately from the Germanic base *bren-, *bran-, which also produced brand and possibly broil, and was the source of German brennen and Swedish brinna ‘burn’ (another variant of the base, *brun-, lies behind the brim- of brimstone).
It has been conjectured that Latin fervēre ‘boil’ (source of English fervent and ferment) may be connected. Burn ‘stream’ comes from Old English burn(e), burna, which was a descendant of a Germanic base *brun-, source also of German brunne ‘stream’. This too has been linked with Latin fervēre (from the notion of fast-running water ‘boiling’ over rocks). => brand, brimstone, broil, ferment, fervent
burn (v.)
12c., combination of Old Norse brenna "to burn, light," and two originally distinct Old English verbs: bærnan "to kindle" (transitive) and beornan "to be on fire" (intransitive), all from Proto-Germanic *brennan/*brannjan (cognates: Middle Dutch bernen, Dutch branden, Old High German brinnan, German brennen, Gothic -brannjan "to set on fire"). This perhaps is from PIE
*gwher- "to heat, warm" (see warm (adj.)), or from PIE *bhre-n-u, from root *bhreue- "to boil forth, well up" (see brew (v.)). Related: Burned/burnt (see -ed); burning.
Figuratively (of passions, battle, etc.) in Old English. Meaning "cheat, swindle, victimize" is first attested 1650s. In late 18c, slang, burned meant "infected with venereal disease." To burn one's bridges (behind one) "behave so as to destroy any chance of returning to a status quo" (attested by 1892 in Mark Twain), perhaps ultimately is from reckless cavalry raids in the American Civil War. Slavic languages have historically used different and unrelated words for the transitive and intransitive senses of "set fire to"/"be on fire:" for example Polish palić/gorzeć, Russian žeč'/gorel.
burn (n.)
c. 1300, "act of burning," from Old English bryne, from the same source as burn (v.). Until mid-16c. the usual spelling was brenne. Meaning "mark made by burning" is from 1520s. Slow burn first attested 1938, in reference to U.S. movie actor Edgar Kennedy (1890-1948), who made it his specialty.
实用例句
1. The power stations burn coal from the Ruhr region.
发电站烧的煤产自鲁尔地区。
来自柯林斯例句
2. He was a high-earning broker with money to burn.
他是高收入的经纪人，有花不完的钱。
来自柯林斯例句
3. Watch them carefully as they finish cooking because they can burn easily.
就要做好时得小心看着，因为它们很容易烧糊。
来自柯林斯例句
4. Traditional slash and burn farming methods have exhausted the soil.
传统的刀耕火种农业方式耗尽了土地的肥力。
来自柯林斯例句
5. He might burn himself out and go to an early grave.
