timber

Reading level: hard

Estimated CEFR level: B2 — Upper-Intermediate

Estimated from word frequency; not an official CEFR classification.

Definition

  1. noun the wood of trees cut and prepared for use as building material
  2. noun a beam made of wood
  3. noun a post made of wood

Etymology

From Middle English tymber, from Old English timber, from Proto-West Germanic *timr, from Proto-Germanic *timrą (“building; timber”), from Proto-Indo-European *dem- (“to build; to arrange”) (see Proto-Indo-European *dṓm (“home, house”)). Cognates Cognate with Dutch timmer (“building, construction; chamber, room”), German Zimmer (“room, timber”), Luxembourgish Zëmmer (“room”), Yiddish צימער (tsimer, “room”), Danish and Norwegian Bokmål tømmer (“timber”), Faroese and Icelandic timbur (“timber, wood”), Norwegian Nynorsk timber, tymbur, tømmer (“timber”), Swedish timmer (“timber”), Gothic 𐍄𐌹𐌼𐌱𐍂𐌾𐌰𐌽 (timbrjan), 𐍄𐌹𐌼𐍂𐌾𐌰𐌽 (timrjan, “to build, construct; to edify, strengthen”); also Breton danvez (“material, matter; fabric; fortune, wealth”), Cornish devnydh (“inhredient, material, stuff; use”), Irish and Scottish Gaelic damhna (“matter”), Welsh defnydd (“material, stuff; gear, implement, instrument; application; cause, occasion, reason”), Latin domus (“home, house”), Ancient Greek δόμος (dómos, “house; household”), Albanian dhomë (“chamber, room”), Latgalian noms (“house”), Latvian nams (“house”), Lithuanian namas (“house”), Belarusian, Bulgarian, Macedonian, and Russian дом (dom, “home, house”), Czech dům (“house”), Polish, Slovak, and Slovene dom (“home, house”), Serbo-Croatian до̑м, dȏm (“home, house”), Ukrainian дім (dim, “home, house; building”), Armenian տուն (tun, “home, house; family, household”), Avestan 𐬛𐬀𐬨 (dam, “house”), Sanskrit दम् (dam, “house”), दम (dama, “home”).

In classic literature

Synonyms

lumber

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