Primus stove
- noun
- UK
:
estufa Primus
- Father showed me how to start the Primus stove and prepare dinner.
Examples
-
With no electricity, she had to boil water on the Primus stove.
Fiction book (1996) -
A steam bellows fanned the fire inside, and there was a black cast-iron boiler and a three-headed Swedish Primus stove.
Fiction book (1994) -
Jacob and I peeped out the bakery window as she heated the rainwater on the Primus stove, took off her blouse, and, weeping mutely, bent over the big basin.
Fiction book (1994) -
All night long, the argument raged between them, their voices drowning out the roar of the Primus stove, the dirge of the burner, and the screech of the pans they dragged.
Fiction book (1994) -
He lit the big Primus stove, and when the steam was compressed in the tank, he opened the cock of the oil spigot and put a burning rag to the spout of the burner.
Fiction book (1994) -
Father showed me how to start the Primus stove and prepare dinner.
-
With no electricity, she had to boil water on the Primus stove.
-
Grace began pumping the Primus stove in order to boil water.
Synonyms
110
1.0
A kitchen appliance with hot burners used to cook food
A portable kerosene stove that people use to cook while camping
Surface Forms
Morphology
The expression is simply a proper name + noun (Primus + stove), so a learner who knows 'stove' will readily infer this refers to a particular kind or brand of stove. However, the specific conventional sense (a portable paraffin/kerosene camping stove) is not fully predictable from the constituents alone and relies on lexicalized, world-knowledge about the brand, so the meaning is only partially transparent to a B1 learner.
Etymology
Primus stove is named after the first brand called Primus, a Latin word meaning 'first'. That brand made a safe, small cooker for explorers and campers, so Primus stove now means a portable stove used for cooking outdoors.