Ask Anne Taylor

I love doing crosswords and often buy such magazines[always with the hope of winning something as well as having some fun!.]
 In one magazine the editorial was answering the question “Why is a bonfire so called?”Bon is French for good of course.Does it mean a “good fire”?
Apparently it comes from the Middle English ”banefire” in which bane refers to bones.
Bones were incinerated, usually from animals killed for meat. Later the word was used to describe fires on which corpses were burned or texts which were considered heretical.
Today, however, bonfires come closer to the idea of “good fire “as they are usually lit for the celebration of happier occasions.