flame
from
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006)
flame
n 1: the process of combustion of inflammable materials
producing heat and light and (often) smoke; "fire was one
of our ancestors' first discoveries" [syn: {fire}, {flame},
{flaming}]
v 1: shine with a sudden light; "The night sky flared with the
massive bombardment" [syn: {flare}, {flame}]
2: be in flames or aflame; "The sky seemed to flame in the
Hawaiian sunset"
3: criticize harshly, usually via an electronic medium; "the
person who posted an inflammatory message got flamed"
from
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Flame \Flame\ (fl[=a]m), n. [OE. flame, flaume, flaumbe, OF.
flame, flambe, F. flamme, fr. L. flamma, fr. flamma, fr.
flagrare to burn. See {Flagrant}, and cf. {Flamneau},
{Flamingo}.]
1. A stream of burning vapor or gas, emitting light and heat;
darting or streaming fire; a blaze; a fire.
[1913 Webster]
2. Burning zeal or passion; elevated and noble enthusiasm;
glowing imagination; passionate excitement or anger. "In a
flame of zeal severe." --Milton.
[1913 Webster]
Where flames refin'd in breasts seraphic glow.
--Pope.
[1913 Webster]
Smit with the love of sister arts we came,
And met congenial, mingling flame with flame.
--Pope.
[1913 Webster]
3. Ardor of affection; the passion of love. --Coleridge.
[1913 Webster]
4. A person beloved; a sweetheart. --Thackeray.
Syn: Blaze; brightness; ardor. See {Blaze}.
[1913 Webster]
{Flame bridge}, a bridge wall. See {Bridge}, n., 5.
{Flame color}, brilliant orange or yellow. --B. Jonson.
{Flame engine}, an early name for the gas engine.
{Flame manometer}, an instrument, invented by Koenig, to
obtain graphic representation of the action of the human
vocal organs. See {Manometer}.
{Flame reaction} (Chem.), a method of testing for the
presence of certain elements by the characteristic color
imparted to a flame; as, sodium colors a flame yellow,
potassium violet, lithium crimson, boracic acid green,
etc. Cf. {Spectrum analysis}, under {Spectrum}.
{Flame tree} (Bot.), a tree with showy scarlet flowers, as
the {Rhododendron arboreum} in India, and the
{Brachychiton acerifolium} of Australia.
[1913 Webster]
from
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Flame \Flame\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. {Flamed}; p. pr. & vb. n.
{Flaming}.] [OE. flamen, flaumben, F. flamber, OF. also,
flamer. See {Flame}, n.]
1. To burn with a flame or blaze; to burn as gas emitted from
bodies in combustion; to blaze.
[1913 Webster]
The main blaze of it is past, but a small thing
would make it flame again. --Shak.
[1913 Webster]
2. To burst forth like flame; to break out in violence of
passion; to be kindled with zeal or ardor.
[1913 Webster]
He flamed with indignation. --Macaulay.
[1913 Webster]
from
Jargon File (4.4.4, 14 Aug 2003)
flame
[at MIT, orig. from the phrase flaming asshole]
1. vi. To post an email message intended to insult and provoke.
2. vi. To speak incessantly and/or rabidly on some relatively
uninteresting subject or with a patently ridiculous attitude.
3. vt. Either of senses 1 or 2, directed with hostility at a
particular person or people.
4. n. An instance of flaming. When a discussion degenerates into
useless controversy, one might tell the participants "Now you're just
flaming" or "Stop all that flamage!" to try to get them to cool down
(so to speak).
The term may have been independently invented at several different
places. It has been reported from MIT, Carleton College and RPI (among
many other places) from as far back as 1969, and from the University
of Virginia in the early 1960s.
It is possible that the hackish sense of `flame' is much older than
that. The poet Chaucer was also what passed for a wizard hacker in his
time; he wrote a treatise on the astrolabe, the most advanced
computing device of the day. In Chaucer's Troilus and Cressida,
Cressida laments her inability to grasp the proof of a particular
mathematical theorem; her uncle Pandarus then observes that it's
called "the fleminge of wrecches." This phrase seems to have been
intended in context as "that which puts the wretches to flight" but
was probably just as ambiguous in Middle English as "the flaming of
wretches" would be today. One suspects that Chaucer would feel right
at home on Usenet.
from
The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (8 July 2008)
flame
flamage
flaming
<messaging> To rant, to speak or write incessantly and/or
rabidly on some relatively uninteresting subject or with a
patently ridiculous attitude or with hostility toward a
particular person or group of people. "Flame" is used as a
verb ("Don't flame me for this, but..."), a flame is a single
flaming message, and "flamage" /flay'm*j/ the content.
Flamage may occur in any medium (e.g. spoken, {electronic
mail}, {Usenet} news, {World-Wide Web}). Sometimes a flame
will be delimited in text by marks such as "<flame
on>...<flame off>".
The term was probably independently invented at several
different places.
Mark L. Levinson says, "When I joined the Harvard student
radio station (WHRB) in 1966, the terms flame and flamer were
already well established there to refer to impolite ranting
and to those who performed it. Communication among the
students who worked at the station was by means of what today
you might call a paper-based Usenet group. Everyone wrote
comments to one another in a large ledger. Documentary
evidence for the early use of flame/flamer is probably still
there for anyone fanatical enough to research it."
It is reported that "flaming" was in use to mean something
like "interminably drawn-out semi-serious discussions"
(late-night bull sessions) at Carleton College during
1968-1971.
{Usenetter} Marc Ramsey, who was at {WPI} from 1972 to 1976,
says: "I am 99% certain that the use of "flame" originated at
WPI. Those who made a nuisance of themselves insisting that
they needed to use a {TTY} for "real work" came to be known as
"flaming asshole lusers". Other particularly annoying people
became "flaming asshole ravers", which shortened to "flaming
ravers", and ultimately "flamers". I remember someone picking
up on the Human Torch pun, but I don't think "flame on/off"
was ever much used at WPI." See also {asbestos}.
It is possible that the hackish sense of "flame" is much older
than that. The poet Chaucer was also what passed for a wizard
hacker in his time; he wrote a treatise on the astrolabe, the
most advanced computing device of the day. In Chaucer's
"Troilus and Cressida", Cressida laments her inability to
grasp the proof of a particular mathematical theorem; her
uncle Pandarus then observes that it's called "the fleminge of
wrecches." This phrase seems to have been intended in context
as "that which puts the wretches to flight" but was probably
just as ambiguous in Middle English as "the flaming of
wretches" would be today. One suspects that Chaucer would
feel right at home on {Usenet}.
[{Jargon File}]
(2001-03-11)
from
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0
261 Moby Thesaurus words for "flame":
Amor, Casanova, Christian love, Don Juan, Eros, Lothario,
Platonic love, Romeo, admiration, adoration, affection, agape,
amoroso, ardency, ardor, attachment, baby, backfire, bake,
balefire, be bright, be in heat, beacon, beacon fire, beam, beau,
bedazzle, beloved, blare, blaze, blaze of light, blaze up, blind,
blister, bloom, blush, bodily love, boil, bonfire, boyfriend,
brand, broil, brotherly love, burn, burn in, burn off,
burning ghat, burst into flame, caballero, campfire, candle,
caritas, cast, catch, catch fire, catch on fire, cauterize,
cavalier, cavaliere servente, char, charity, cheerful fire, choke,
coal, color, color up, combust, combustion, conflagration,
conjugal love, cook, corposant, coruscate, cozy fire, crack,
crackling fire, crematory, crimson, cupel, darling, daze, dazzle,
dear, death fire, desire, devotion, diffuse light, eagerness,
electric light bulb, enthusiasm, esquire, facula, faithful love,
fancy, fellow, fen fire, fervor, feverishness, fire, flame up,
flare, flare up, flash, flashing point, flicker, flickering flame,
flush, fondness, forest fire, found, fox fire, free love,
free-lovism, fry, fulgurate, funeral pyre, gallant, gasp, gigolo,
give light, glance, glare, gleam, gleam of light, glim, glint,
glow, grow red, heart, heartthrob, hero worship, honey, idolatry,
idolism, idolization, ignis fatuus, ignite, ignition, illuminant,
illuminator, inamorata, inamorato, incandesce, incandescent body,
ingle, intensity, kindle, lady-killer, ladylove, lambent flame,
lamp, lantern, lasciviousness, libido, light, light bulb,
light source, like, liking, love, love-maker, lovemaking, lover,
luminant, luminary, luster, man, mantle, married love, marshfire,
match, moon, necker, old man, open fire, oxidate, oxidize, pant,
parch, passion, petter, philanderer, physical love, popular regard,
popularity, prairie fire, pyre, pyrolyze, radiate, radiate heat,
raging fire, redden, regard, roast, scald, scorch, sea of flames,
sear, seducer, seethe, send out rays, sentiment, sex, sexual love,
sheet of fire, sheik, shimmer with heat, shine, shine brightly,
shoot, shoot out rays, signal beacon, simmer, singe, smolder,
smother, smudge fire, solar flare, solar prominence, solder,
source of light, spark, spiritual love, squire, stars, steady,
steam, stew, stifle, suffocate, sugar daddy, sun, swain, sweat,
sweetheart, sweetie, swelter, swinge, take, taper, tender feeling,
tender passion, three-alarm fire, toast, torch, torrefy, truelove,
turn red, turtledove, two-alarm fire, uxoriousness, vesicate,
vulcanize, warmth, watch fire, wildfire, witch fire, worship,
yearning, young man, zeal
grant@antiflux.org