late 14c., "consumed or scorched by fire," past-participle adjective from the original past participle of burn (v.), which was displaced after 16c, by burned. Burnt offering "animal burned whole upon an altar in Jewish ritual" is from late 14c., a biblical phrase (see Exodus xx.24, Mark xii.33). Burnt-cork (1800) was used as theatrical makeup in blackface acts. Burnt fox was an old slang name for a student during his second half-year in a German university.