An inglenook (Modern Scots ingleneuk), or chimney corner, is a small recess that adjoins a fireplace. The word is formed with ingle, meaning "fireplace" in Old English (from Old Scots or Irish Gaelic aingeal, "angel" or euphemistically "fire"), and nook. Inglenooks originated as a partially enclosed hearth area, appended to a larger room. The hearth was used for cooking, and its enclosing alcove became a natural place for people seeking warmth to gather. With changes in building design, kitchens became separate rooms, while inglenooks were retained in the living space as intimate warming places, subsidiary spaces within larger rooms.Inglenooks were prominent features of shingle style architecture but began to disappear with the advent of central heating. Prominent American architects who employed the feature included Greene and Greene, Henry Hobson Richardson, and Frank Lloyd Wright. British architect Richard Norman Shaw significantly influenced Richardson.