'Curfew' is Old French for 'cover fire' — medieval bells signalling time to extinguish all flames.
A regulation requiring people to remain indoors between specified hours, typically at night, or the time at which such a restriction begins.
From Anglo-Norman 'coeverfu' and Old French 'cuevrefeu,' literally 'cover fire,' from 'couvrir' (to cover) and 'feu' (fire). In medieval towns, a bell was rung each evening — typically at eight or nine o'clock — signaling that all household fires and candles must be covered or extinguished to prevent the devastating fires that regularly destroyed timber-built towns. The word entered English after the Norman Conquest and gradually shifted from the fire-safety practice to any regulation requiring
The word 'curfew' literally means 'cover fire.' In medieval Europe, a bell rang each evening telling citizens to cover or extinguish their hearth fires to prevent the house fires that routinely devastated timber towns. William the Conqueror is often credited with imposing the curfew bell on England after 1066, though the practice existed on the continent before him. The original curfew had nothing