Burinake comes, quite literally, from buri nage — "so as to make fire." In the days before matches or lighters, starting a fire was no small feat. People struck flint together, or set a stick into a hollowed piece of wood and spun it between their palms, coaxing an ember from the friction. But rubbing slowly or striking weakly would never catch; one had to move hard and fast enough to raise a spark. That motion — hurried and rapid enough to make fire leap up — was called buri nage, and as its pronunciation shifted it became burinake. The gesture of an age when fire was precious and kindling it was urgent lives on today in the meaning "to rush off in a hurry."