真正燒起來的大火
這一族就是畫面本身：火大到要用範圍來描述，而不是用地點。
noun · C1
A very large fire that spreads over a wide area and destroys many things, such as buildings, whole streets, or forests.
大火災
核心畫面
Picture a fire that has stopped being one fire. It has jumped the gap between roofs and is now the whole street, or the whole of trees. The word can be thought of as the moment a fire becomes a scene rather than an event, and everything else the word does grows out of that spreading.
可以想成一場已經不算「一處火」的火。它跳過屋頂之間的空隙，變成整條街，或整面山坡的樹。conflagration 捉…更多收起
可以想成一場已經不算「一處火」的火。它跳過屋頂之間的空隙，變成整條街，或整面山坡的樹。conflagration 捉住的就是火從一件事變成一整個場面的那一刻。它強調的不是燙不燙，而是「連成一片、停不下來」。這個畫面一立起來，這個字其他的用法就都是從這裡長出去的。From the word’s history
From Middle French, from Latin cōnflagrātiō, a burning, built on cōnflagrō from con- and flagrō, to blaze.
經中古法文來自拉丁文 cōnflagrātiō（燃燒），動詞是 cōnflagrō，由 con- 加上 flagrō（燃燒）組成。
Wiktionary etymology tree for conflagration, supplied in the evidence packet: From Middle French, from Latin cōnflagrātiō (burning, conflagration); Latin con- + flagrō > cōnflagrō.
Two branches
借火來講的衝突
借過去的不是「熱」，而是「會蔓延」：一點火星會燒掉一整條街，一件小爭端也可能捲進一整個地區。這是修辭上的連結，不是歷史上的新來源。
noun · C2
A war or a violent conflict that spreads and pulls in many people or countries, spoken about as if it were a huge fire.
大規模衝突