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LUMBER

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Originally appearing in Volume V17, Page 121 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.

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LUMBER , a word now meaning (2) useless discarded See also:

FURNITURE (from " furnish," Fr. fournir)

furniture or other rubbish, particularly if of a bulky or heavy See also:

CHARACTER (Gr. xapareri7p, from xap&crew, to scratch)

character; (2) See also:

TIMBER

timber, when roughly sawn or cut into logs or beams (see TIMBER); (3) as a verb, to make a loud rumbling See also:

NOISE (a word of doubtful origin; O. Fr. nogse or nose; Prov. nausa, which points to Lat. nausea, sickness, as the origin; others take Lat. noxia, harm, as the source)

noise, to move in a clumsy heavy way, also to See also:

BURDEN, or BURTHEN

burden with useless material, to encumber. " Lumber " and " lumber-See also:

house " were formerly used for a pawnbroker's See also:

SHOP

shop, being in this sense a variant of " Lombard," a name See also:

FAMILIAR (through the Fr. familier, from Lat. familiaris, of or belonging to the familia, family)

familiar throughout See also:

EUROPE

Europe for a banker, See also:

MONEY

money-changer or pawnbroker. This has frequently been taken to be the origin of the word in sense (I), the reference being to the See also:

STORE (from O. Fr. estor or estoire, Late Lat. staurum or instaurum, stock, provisions, supply, from the late use of instaurare, to provide, properly to construct, renew, restore)

store of unredeemed and unsaleable articles accumulating in pawnbrokers' shops. See also:

SKEAT, WALTER WILLIAM (1835– )

Skeat adopts this in preference to the connexion with " lumber " in sense (3), but thinks that the word may have been influenced by both See also:

SOURCES

sources (Etym. See also:

DIET

Diet., 1910), This word is probably of Scandinavian origin, and is cognate with a See also:

SWEDISH

Swedish See also:

DIALECT (from Gr. Sia stcror, conversation, manner of speaking, &aXeyec6at, to converse)

dialect word lomra, me fining " to roar," a frequentative of ljumma, " to make a noise." The See also:

ENGLISH

English word may be of native origin and merely onomatopoeic. The New English See also:

DICTIONARY

Dictionary, though admitting the See also:

PROBABILITY (Lat. probabilis, probable or credible)

probability of the association with " Lombard," prefers the second proposed derivation. The application of the word to timber is of See also:

AMERICAN

American origin; the New English Dictionary quotes from See also:

Suffolk (See also:

Mass.) Deeds of 2662—" Freighted in See also:

Boston, with beames .

End of Article: LUMBER

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