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[fleym] /fleɪm/

noun
1.
burning gas or vapor, as from wood or coal, that is undergoing combustion; a portion of ignited gas or vapor.
2.
Often, flames. the state or condition of blazing combustion:
to burst into flames.
3.
any flamelike condition; glow; inflamed condition.
4.
brilliant light; scintillating luster.
5.
bright coloring; a streak or patch of color.
6.
.
7.
intense ardor, zeal, or passion.
8.
Informal. an object of one’s passionate love; sweetheart:
He’s taking out his new flame tonight.
9.
Computer Slang. an angry, critical, or disparaging electronic message, as an online comment.
verb (used without object), flamed, flaming.
10.
to burn with a flame or flames; burst into flames; blaze.
11.
to glow like flame; shine brilliantly; flash.
12.
to burn or burst forth with strong emotion; break into open anger, indignation, etc.
13.
Computer Slang. to post an angry, critical, or disparaging electronic message, as an online comment.
verb (used with object), flamed, flaming.
14.
to subject to the action of flame or fire.
15.
to flambé.
16.
Computer Slang. to insult or criticize angrily in an online post or comment.
Verb phrases
17.
flame out,

/fleɪm/
noun
1.
a hot usually luminous body of burning gas often containing small incandescent particles, typically emanating in flickering streams from burning material or produced by a jet of ignited gas
2.
(often pl) the state or condition of burning with flames: to burst into flames
3.
a brilliant light; fiery glow
4.

5.
intense passion or ardour; burning emotion
6.
(informal) a lover or sweetheart (esp in the phrase an old flame)
7.
(informal) an abusive message sent by electronic mail, esp to express anger or criticism of an internet user
verb
8.
to burn or cause to burn brightly; give off or cause to give off flame
9.
(intransitive) to burn or glow as if with fire; become red or fiery: his face flamed with anger
10.
(intransitive) to show great emotion; become angry or excited
11.
(transitive) to apply a flame to (something)
12.
(transitive) (archaic) to set on fire, either physically or with emotion
13.
(informal) to send an abusive message by electronic mail
n.

mid-14c., from Anglo-French flaume, Old French flamme (10c.), from Latin flammula “small flame,” diminutive of flamma “flame, blazing fire,” from PIE *bhleg- “to shine, flash,” from root *bhel- (1) “to shine, flash, burn” (see bleach (v.)).

The meaning “a sweetheart” is attested from 1640s; the figurative sense of “burning passion” was in Middle English. Flame-thrower (1917) translates German flammenwerfer (1915).
v.

early 14c., flamen, from Old French flamer, from flamme (see flame (n.)). The sense of “unleash invective on a computer network” is from 1980s. Related: Flamed; flaming.
flame
(flām)
The hot, glowing mixture of burning gases and tiny particles that arises from combustion. Flames get their light either from the fluorescence of molecules or ions that have become excited, or from the incandescence of solid particles involved in the combustion process, such as the carbon particles from a candle.

noun

verb

Related Terms

shoot someone down

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 “…”.
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)
Family Life and Maternity Education
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