Chim chimbley chim chimley some spell it wrong

- Private group -
Tue, 11/11/2014 - 3:15pm

ALOHA MAINE!

I don’t know how many times over these years of cleaning chimneys a customer will pull out the checkbook and ask me “how do you spell chimbley?” or some call it a chimley without the letter “B”.

Of course our modern usage is “chimney” but I wanted to find out the origins of the three versions of that smoke thing in the roof, so I called the smartest Mainer in several parts of Waldo County; Mr Tom Seymour, and asked his take on it. Tom is an avid historian and author of numerous really fine books such as “Foraging Maine” and is as knowledgeable on Maine as any man alive.

Tom believes the word “chimley” was the original old English term in use for ages, and the word “chimbley” with the letter “B” was a corruption of that word, and that our present word chimney comes from both.

When I first started this business 20 years ago I watched Tom Seymour’s chimney slide right down into his living room! What a mess! I forget what word he used for it that day but I don’t think it was chimley! :)

Thanks for calling us at 207-323-8008 (office) or the alternative number, 323-7755. Brad.