lumber

lumber
\ \ [14] Swedish has a dialectal verb lomamove heavily’, which is the only clue we have to the antecedents of the otherwise mysterious English verb lumber. The noun, too, which first appears in the 16th century, is difficult to account for. In the absence of any other convincing candidates, it is presumed to have been derived from the verb (its earliest recorded sense is ‘useless or inconvenient articles’, plausibly close to the verb; ‘cut timber’ did not emerge until the 17th century, in North America).

Word origins - 2ed. . 2005.

Игры ⚽ Поможем написать реферат
Synonyms:

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Lumber — Lum ber, n. [Prob. fr. Lombard, the Lombards being the money lenders and pawnbrokers of the Middle Ages. A lumber room was, according to Trench, originally a Lombard room, or room where the Lombard pawnbroker stored his pledges. See {Lombard}.] 1 …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • lumber — lumber1 [lum′bər] n. [< ? LOMBARD: orig., pawnbroker s shop or storeroom, hence pawned articles in storage, hence stored articles, hence lumber] 1. miscellaneous discarded household articles, furniture, etc. stored away or taking up room ☆ 2.… …   English World dictionary

  • Lumber — Lum ber, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Lumbered}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Lumbering}.] 1. To heap together in disorder. Stuff lumbered together. Rymer. [1913 Webster] 2. To fill or encumber with lumber; as, to lumber up a room. [1913 Webster] …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • lumber — lum‧ber [ˈlʌmbə ǁ ər] noun [uncountable] wood that has been prepared for sale; = TIMBER: • The company operates 50 lumber and building material retail stores. * * * lumber UK US /ˈlʌmbər/ noun [U] NATURAL RESOURCES ► TIMBER( …   Financial and business terms

  • lumber — [v1] walk heavily, clumsily barge, clump, galumph, lump, plod, shamble, shuffle, slog, stump, trudge, trundle, waddle; concept 151 Ant. glide lumber [v2] burden charge, cumber, encumber, impose upon, lade, land, load, saddle, tax, weigh; concept… …   New thesaurus

  • Lumber — Lum ber, v. i. 1. To move heavily, as if burdened. [1913 Webster] 2. [Cf. dial. Sw. lomra to resound.] To make a sound as if moving heavily or clumsily; to rumble. Cowper. [1913 Webster] 3. To cut logs in the forest, or prepare timber for market …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • Lumber — Lumber, so v.w. Fettgans …   Pierer's Universal-Lexikon

  • lumber — *stumble, trip, blunder, lurch, flounder, galumph, lollop, bumble …   New Dictionary of Synonyms

  • lumber — ► VERB ▪ move in a slow, heavy, awkward way. ORIGIN perhaps symbolic of clumsy movement …   English terms dictionary

  • Lumber — Timber redirects here. For other uses, see Timber (disambiguation). Timber in storage for later processing at a sawmill …   Wikipedia

  • lumber — {{11}}lumber (n.) timber sawn into rough planks, 1660s, Amer.Eng. (Massachusetts), earlier disused bit of furniture; heavy, useless objects (1550s), probably from LUMBER (Cf. lumber) (v.), perhaps influenced by Lombard, from the Italian… …   Etymology dictionary

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”