wood

wood
\ \ [OE] The ancestral meaning of wood is probably ‘collection of trees, forest’; ‘tree’ (now obsolete) and ‘substance from which trees are made’ are secondary developments. The word goes back to prehistoric Germanic *widuz, which also produced Swedish and Danish ved ‘firewood’, and it has Celtic relatives in Gaelic fiodh ‘wood, woods’, Welsh gwydd ‘trees’, and Breton gwez ‘trees’. Its ultimate source is not known for certain, although it has been suggested that it may go back to the Indo- European base *weidh- ‘separate’ (source also of English divide and widow). According to this theory, it would originally have denoted a ‘separated’ or ‘remote’ piece of territory, near the outer edge or borders of known land; and since such remote, uninhabited areas were usually wooded, it came to denote ‘forest’ (forest itself may mean etymologically ‘outside area’, and the Old Norse word for ‘forest’, mork, originally signified ‘border area’).

Word origins - 2ed. . 2005.

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  • Wood — /wood/, n. 1. Grant, 1892 1942, U.S. painter. 2. Leonard, 1860 1927, U.S. military doctor and political administrator. * * * I Hard, fibrous material formed by the accumulation of secondary xylem produced by the vascular cambium. It is the… …   Universalium

  • Wood — Wood, n. [OE. wode, wude, AS. wudu, wiodu; akin to OHG. witu, Icel. vi?r, Dan. & Sw. ved wood, and probably to Ir. & Gael. fiodh, W. gwydd trees, shrubs.] [1913 Webster] 1. A large and thick collection of trees; a forest or grove; frequently used …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • Wood — puede referirse a: Contenido 1 Personas 2 Lugares 3 Música 4 Otros Personas Alphonso W. Wood, botánico esta …   Wikipedia Español

  • WOOD —    Wood has always been used most commonly in the construction of domestic structures that do not require the same level of durability as temples and funerary monuments, which are more typically constructed from brick or stone. Timber became more …   Historical Dictionary of Architecture

  • wood — W2S2 [wud] n ↑goggles, ↑saw, ↑wood [: Old English; Origin: wudu] 1.) [U and C] the material that trees are made of →↑wooden, woody ↑woody ▪ Put some more wood on the fire. ▪ …   Dictionary of contemporary English

  • wood — wood1 [wood] n. [ME wode < OE wudu, earlier widu, akin to OHG wito < IE base * widhu , tree > OIr fid, Welsh gwŷdd, tree, forest] 1. [usually pl., with sing. or pl. v.] a thick growth of trees; forest or grove 2. the hard, fibrous… …   English World dictionary

  • Wood — Wood, Grant Wood, Natalie Wood, Robert Williams * * * (as used in expressions) Annie Wood Halifax, Edward Frederick Lindley Wood, 1 conde de Johnson, Robert Wood Wood Buffalo, parque nacional Wood, Grant Wood, Leonard …   Enciclopedia Universal

  • wood — [ wud ] noun *** 1. ) uncount the substance that forms the main part of a tree and is used for making things such as furniture: a piece of wood the polished dark wood of an antique table cut/chop wood: They stopped encouraging people to cut wood… …   Usage of the words and phrases in modern English

  • wood|y — wood|y1 «WUD ee», adjective, wood|i|er, wood|i|est. 1. having many trees; covered with trees: »a woody hillside. 2. a) of the nature of or consistin …   Useful english dictionary

  • Wood — Ridge, NJ U.S. borough in New Jersey Population (2000): 7644 Housing Units (2000): 3087 Land area (2000): 1.098509 sq. miles (2.845126 sq. km) Water area (2000): 0.000000 sq. miles (0.000000 sq. km) Total area (2000): 1.098509 sq. miles (2.845126 …   StarDict's U.S. Gazetteer Places

  • wood — ► NOUN 1) the hard fibrous material forming the main substance of the trunk or branches of a tree or shrub, used for fuel or timber. 2) (also woods) a small forest. 3) (the wood) wooden barrels used for storing alcoholic drinks. 4) a golf club… …   English terms dictionary

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