timber

See also: Timber

English

WOTD – 16 August 2006

Etymology 1

From Middle English tymber, from Old English timber, from Proto-Germanic *timrą, from Proto-Indo-European *dem- (“build, house”) (see Proto-Indo-European *dṓm). Cognates include Dutch timmer, Old High German zimbar (German Zimmer), Norwegian tømmer, Old Norse timbr, Gothic 𐍄𐌹𐌼𐍂𐌾𐌰𐌽 (timrjan, “to build”), Latin domus and Ancient Greek δόμος (dómos).

Pronunciation

  • (UK)
    • (noun): IPA(key): /ˈtɪmbə/
    • (interjection): IPA(key): /ˈtɪːmˌbəː/
  • (US)
    • (noun): enPR: tĭmʹbər, IPA(key): /ˈtɪmbɚ/
    • (interjection): IPA(key): /ˈtɪːmˌbɚː/
  • Audio (US) (noun)(file)
  • Hyphenation: tim‧ber
  • Homophone: timbre (for one US pronunciation of that word)

Noun

timber (countable and uncountable, plural timbers)

  1. (uncountable) Trees in a forest regarded as a source of wood.
  2. (outside Canada, US, uncountable) Wood that has been pre-cut and is ready for use in construction.
  3. (countable) A heavy wooden beam, generally a whole log that has been squared off and used to provide heavy support for something such as a roof.
    the timbers of a ship
  4. (firearms, informal) The wooden stock of a rifle or shotgun.
  5. (archaic) A certain quantity of fur skins (as of martens, ermines, sables, etc.) packed between boards; in some cases forty skins, in others one hundred and twenty. Also timmer, timbre.
Synonyms
Hyponyms
  • (wooden beam used to provide support): crosstree
Derived terms
Translations
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.

Interjection

timber!

  1. Used by loggers to warn others that a tree being felled is falling.
Translations

Verb

timber (third-person singular simple present timbers, present participle timbering, simple past and past participle timbered)

  1. (transitive) To fit with timbers.
    timbering a roof
  2. (transitive, obsolete) To construct, frame, build.
    • 1646, Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica, London: Edw. Dod & Nath. Ekins, 1650, Book I, Chapter 5, p. 14,
      For many heads that undertake [learning], were never squared nor timbred for it.
  3. (falconry, intransitive) To light or land on a tree.
  4. (obsolete) To make a nest.
  5. (transitive) To surmount as a timber does.

Etymology 2

Noun

timber

  1. Misspelling of timbre.

Anagrams

Norwegian Nynorsk

Noun

timber n (definite singular timberet, uncountable)

  1. form removed with the spelling reform of 1938; superseded by tømmer

Old English

Etymology

From Proto-Germanic *timrą, from Proto-Indo-European *dem- (“build, house”) (see Proto-Indo-European *dṓm). Cognates include Old Saxon timbar, Old High German zimbar (German Zimmer), Old Norse timbr, Gothic 𐍄𐌹𐌼𐍂𐌾𐌰𐌽 (timrjan, “to build”), and Latin domus.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈtimber/

Noun

timber n

  1. timber
  2. a building
  3. the act of building

Descendants

Old Swedish

Etymology

From Old Norse timbr, from Proto-Germanic *timrą.

Noun

timber n

  1. timber; wood used for building

Declension

Descendants

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