burning times
- noun
- NSFW
:
tiempos de la hoguera
- Many historians refer to the burning times as a dark chapter in European history due to the persecution of accused witches.
Examples
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During the burning times, communities often turned against neighbors, accusing them of witchcraft and condemning them to death.
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The burning times were characterized by fear and superstition, leading to tragic outcomes for thousands of innocent people.
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It's like we're back in the burning times.
Antonyms
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a period characterized by burnings' can be fairly directly inferred from the constituents 'burning' and 'times', so a B1 learner who knows those words will grasp that it refers to an era marked by burning events. However, the specific historical and cultural sense (i.e. witch persecutions/executions) is conventional and requires background knowledge, so the relation is only partially predictable.
Etymology
Burning times comes from a terrible period when people believed others were witches and burned them at the stake. The word burning shows the violent act and times shows the period, so the phrase now means 'a time of persecution and fear'.