hearth

n. floor of a fireplace; symbol of home and family

In common historic and modern usage, a hearth (Har-th) is a brick- or stone-lined fireplace or oven used for cooking and/or heating. Because of its nature, in historic times the hearth was considered an integral part of a home, often its central or most important feature. This concept has been generalized to refer to a homeplace or household, as in the terms "hearth and home" and "keep the home fires burning." In fireplace design, the hearth is often considered the visible elements of the fireplace, with emphasis upon the floor level extension of masonry associated with the fireplace mantel.
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Noun
1. an open recess in a wall at the base of a chimney where a fire can be built; "the fireplace was so large you could walk inside it"; "he laid a fire in the hearth and lit it"; "the hearth was black with the charcoal of many fires"
(synonym) fireplace, open fireplace
(hypernym) recess, niche
(hyponym) fire
(part-holonym) chimney
(part-meronym) fire iron
2. home symbolized as a part of the fireplace; "driven from hearth and home"; "fighting in defense of their firesides"
(synonym) fireside
(hypernym) dwelling, home, domicile, abode, habitation, dwelling house
(part-holonym) fireplace, open fireplace
(classification) synecdoche
3. an area near a fireplace (usually paved and extending out into a room); "they sat on the hearth and warmed themselves before the fire"
(synonym) fireside
(hypernym) area, country

(n.)
The pavement or floor of brick, stone, or metal in a chimney, on which a fire is made; the floor of a fireplace; also, a corresponding part of a stove.
  

(n.)
The house itself, as the abode of comfort to its inmates and of hospitality to strangers; fireside.
  

(n.)
The floor of a furnace, on which the material to be heated lies, or the lowest part of a melting furnace, into which the melted material settles.
  

One way of baking much practiced in the East is to place the dough on an iron plate, either laid on or supported on legs above the vessel sunk in the ground, which forms the oven. The cakes baked "on the hearth" (Genesis 18:6) were probably baked in the existing Bedouin manner, on hot stones covered with ashes. The "hearth" of King Jehoiakim's winter palace, (Jeremiah 36:23) was possibly a pan or brazier of charcoal. From this we see that the significance of the Hebrew words translated hearth is not the same as with us.