Editing Curfew (section)

==Etymology==
[[File:Curfew - 17th century - V&A 94-1891.jpg|thumb|A 17th century "curfew", used to cover a fire at night]]
{{Quote box |quote = Between the evening twilight and the grayness before dawn one can hardly make out the walls of the houses, for there is no lighting in the medieval city as we said. At evening curfew the women cover the
coals in the [[hearth]] with ash to reduce the fire hazard. The houses are built with beams of [[oak]] and every one is a potential tinderbox waiting to blaze up, so at night the only flames left burning are the candles before the [[Religious images in Christian theology|holy images]]. Why would the streets need to be lit anyway? In the evening the entrances to the dangerous neighborhoods are barred, [[Boom (navigational barrier)|chains]] are stretched across the river to prevent a surprise attack from barbarian raiders coming upstream, and the [[city gate]]s are locked tight. The city is like one big household, with everything well secured.|author=[[Arsenio Frugoni]] |width=400px |source= Quoted in ''Urban Space in the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Age''<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PN8skIYO0p4C&q=%22Between+the+evening+twilight+and+the+grayness+before+dawn+one+can+hardly+make%22&pg=PA12|title=Urban Space in the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Age|first=Albrecht|last=Classen|date=15 December 2009|publisher=Walter de Gruyter|isbn=978-3-11-022390-3|via=Google Books}}</ref> |quoted=1}}
The word "curfew" {{IPAc-en|ˈ|k|ɜr|.|f|j|uː|}} comes from the [[Old French]] phrase "''couvre-feu''", which means "cover fire".<ref name=":0" /> It was later adopted into [[Middle English]] as "curfeu", which later became the modern "curfew".<ref>{{OED|curfew}}</ref> Its original meaning refers to a law by [[William the Conqueror]] that all lights and fires should be covered to extinction at the ringing of an eight o'clock bell to prevent the spread of destructive fire within communities in timber buildings.<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia|title=Curfew|year=1726|encyclopedia=[[Bailey's dictionary]]|url=https://archive.org/details/universaletymolo00bailuoft/page/n235/mode/2up?q=Curfew|page=235|edition=third}}</ref> With the same derivation a "curfew" also refers to a device used to cover the embers of a fire at night, allowing it to be re-ignited more easily in the morning.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Curfew |url=https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O89972/curfew-unknown/ |access-date=19 February 2024 |website=V&A Explore the Collections}}</ref>