abatis

From French abatis, abattis (“mass of things beaten or cut down”), from abattre. See abate.

(historical) In the Middle Ages, an officer of the stables who had the care of measuring out the provender; an avenor.


timber

en-noun

timber (countable and uncountable, plural timbers)

From Middle English tymber, from Old English timber, from Proto-West Germanic *timr, 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).

der

the timbers of a ship

(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.

գերան

beam used to support something such as a roof or a ship


puncheon

From Middle English punchoun, from Anglo-Norman ponchon, pounceon et al., and Middle French ponçon, poinchon et al., from Old French ponchon, from Latin pūnctiōnem (“act of piercing”). Doublet of punction. Related to Middle High German punze (“chisel; burin, graver”), ponze (“puncheon, standardized cask”), German Punze (“puncheon, punch, counter”).

cog

A figured stamp, die, or punch, used by goldsmiths, cutlers, etc.

A split log or heavy slab of timber with the face smoothed, used especially for flooring but also for log cabin walls, piers, or plank roads.

A short low bridge of similar construction. Also called puncheon bridge.

Once in the Grenada islands, when I and above eight others were pulling a large boat with two puncheons of water in it, a surf struck us, and drove the boat and all in it about half a stone's throw, among some trees, and above the high water mark.

1789, Olaudah Equiano, chapter 6, in The Interesting Narrative, volume I:

Again, by 28 Hen. VIII, cap. 14, it is re-enacted that the tun of wine should contain 252 gallons, a butt of Malmsey 126 gallons, a pipe 126 gallons, a tercian or puncheon 84 gallons, a hogshead 63 gallons, a tierce 41 gallons, a barrel 31.5 gallons, a rundlet 18.5 gallons.

1882, James Edwin Thorold Rogers, A History of Agriculture and Prices in England, page 205:

Then he went to the scullery, wetted his hands, scooped the last white dough out of the punchion, and dropped it in a baking-tin.

1913, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, chapter 8, in Sons and Lovers, London: Duckworth & Co. […], →OCLC:

A type of cask used to hold liquids, having a capacity varying from 72 to 120 gallons; a tercian.


rick

From earlier wrick, from Middle English wricken, wrikken (“to move back and forth”), probably from Middle Dutch *verwricken or Middle Low German vorwricken. Cognate with West Frisian wrikke, wrikje, Dutch wrikken, Low German wricken, German wricken, Danish vrikke, Swedish vricka.

(dialectal) A sharp or sudden move; a jerk or tug.


rafter

/ˈɹɑːftə(ɹ)/


coulisse

A side scene of the stage in a theater or the space between the side scenes.


lumberjack

He's a lumberjack and he's OK / He sleeps all night and works all day / I cut down trees, I eat my lunch / I go to the lavatory

1975 [1969], “The Lumberjack Song”, performed by Monty Python:


sawmill

He brought his portable sawmill and turned the old beams into interesting flooring.

The old sawmill still has its waterwheel but they took the saw away years ago.

The sawmill sells lumber to carpenters and sawdust to gardeners.

When I came to the saw-mill at Brække, the sky was overcast, it was already growing dark, only above the level of the north-western horizon there appeared a streak of light, which threw a subdued glimmer on the tranquil surface of the mill-pond.

1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 152:

My client welcomed the judge […] and they disappeared together into the Ethiopian card-room, which was filled with the assegais and exclamation point shields Mr. Cooke had had made at the sawmill at Beaverton.

1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter VIII, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:

A machine, building or company used for cutting (milling) lumber, or (rarely) other hard materials such as stone.


sawdust

en-noun

sawdust (usually uncountable, plural sawdusts)

The fine particles (dust) created by sawing wood or other material.


excelsior

From Latin excelsior, comparative of excelsus (“high”). The name of the stuffing material was originally a trademark.

(archaic) Loftier, yet higher, more elevated; ever upward.


excelsior

w:Excelsior (Longfellow)#Adaptations and parodies

A greeting, farewell or acclamation, presently associated with comic book fandom and famous comic book writer Stan Lee, but continuing a long tradition of parodies of the New York State motto, first by Longfellow and continuing through Thurber to Lee.


excelsior

(US printing, dated) The size of type between Norse and brilliant, standardized as 3-point.

These little mangers, with baby dolls representing Jesus, porcelean Josephs and Marys, wide-eyed cows of papier-mâché, and excelsior for straw, were purchased by pious parents for well-behaved children at Christmas-tide.

1942, Elliot Paul, The Last Time I Saw Paris, Sickle Moon, published 2001, page 91:

Working both [of them] at Kroll's then, she selling candy and cashews in a white smock with "Jan" stitched on her pocket and he lugging easy chairs and maple end tables around on the floor above, hammering apart packing crates from nine to five, the itch of the packing excelsior getting into his nose and eyes and making them burn.

1960, John Updike, 'Rabbit, Run', page 13:

Each Pet Rock came in a cardboard carrying case, complete with air holes, tenderly nestled on a bed of excelsior.

2015 March 31, Margalit Fox, “Gary Dahl, Inventor of the Pet Rock, Dies at 78”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:

(Canada, US) Stuffing material (as for furniture and mattresses) made of slender, curled woodshavings, as a substitute for hair.

lastuvilla

stuffing made of slender, curled wood shavings


corduroy road

The army moved from Savannah on the 28th of January, 1865, on its march through South Carolina […] During this march, Sherman’s army had built thirty-nine miles of corduroy road through the otherwise impassable swamps.

1903, Benjamin F. Gue, History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century, Volume 2 Chapter 12:

A road paved with split or round logs laid crosswise side by side, used e.g. to cross swampy areas.


logrolling

logrolling (countable and uncountable, plural logrollings)

/ˈlɒɡˌɹəʊlɪŋ/

/ˈlɑɡˌɹoʊlɪŋ/

From log + rolling, the figurative senses from the practice of neighbors helping each other do heavy work such as rolling logs in connection with clearing land and building.

tukkien pyöritys

Harkening back to the days when loggers had to break river jams free by carefully stepping out on floating logs, logrolling is all about maintaining balance. Also called birling, logrolling requires competitors to go head-to-head on a single log, trying to toss the other guy into the water by forcing him to lose his balance.

2011, Lew Freedman, “Preface”, in Timber!: The Story of the Lumberjack World Championships, Madison, Wis.: Terrace Books, University of Wisconsin Press, →ISBN, page xv:

(countable, US) The rolling of logs from one place to another; an occasion when people meet to help each other roll logs.

(uncountable, US, sports) A sport in which two people balance on a log floating in a body of water, each one aiming to cause the opponent to fall off by rolling or kicking the log.

rullaus

sports: balancing on a log and aiming to cause the opponent to fall off


log drive

(US, Canada) the transport of timber down a river to a sawmill as a floating raft


woodcutter

A person who cuts down trees, especially as an occupation; a lumberjack.


woodchip

woodchip (countable and uncountable, plural woodchips)

Oh, Deborah, do you recall? / Your house was very small / With woodchip on the wall

1995, “Disco 2000”, in Different Class, performed by Pulp:

A small fibre of wood; especially such material as used to make ingrain wallpaper, aka woodchip wallpaper.


forest machine

A machine used for logging or various other forestry purposes.


duckboard

Possibly a metaphorical use of a name for a board connecting a duck hutch to a yard.

pitkospuu

plank or board laid lengthwise as path across wet ground

Wooden, low walkway or short part of a path with one or more planks, logs, or boards laid after each other lengthwise, often two planks wide; also called bog board, bog bridge, or puncheon.


footplate

(construction) A timber in a wood frame that distributes a concentrated load.


raftsman

A person who transports a raft of floating logs downstream to a sawmill; a rafter.


skid road

(Northwestern US, forestry) A rough cleared right of way with logs embedded cross-wise on which logs being harvested would slide or be dragged or skidded.


glulam

glulam (countable and uncountable, plural glulams)

(uncountable) Glued laminated timber: a structural timber product composed of several layers of dimensioned lumber glued together.


wood flour

wood flour (usually uncountable, plural wood flours)

Finely pulverized wood with a sand-like consistency.


woodshaving

(chiefly in the plural) A shaving from wood.


peckerwood sawmill

peckerwood sawmill (plural peckerwood sawmills)

Apparently coined as a pejorative by the organized lumber-products industry.

The thousands of gasoline-powered "peckerwood" sawmills that scatter wood waste across the landscape, and the big lumber, veneer, and pulp mills that stand in distant isolation from one another

1949, Egon Glesinger, The coming age of wood:

A small-scale sawmill, often with older equipment not capable of producing wood of uniform dimension.


felt grain

The grain of timber which is transverse to the annular rings or plates; the direction of the medullary rays in oak and some other timbers.


woodmeal

woodmeal (usually uncountable, plural woodmeals)


wood wool

From the softness and appearance of the substance as reminiscent of wool.

Wood wool has been widely used as a space filler for packaging glassware, pottery, ceramics, etc.

1990, Frank A. Paine, The Packaging User’s Handbook, →ISBN, page 576:

The only thing you can't make with wood wool is a head.

2016, Divya Anantharaman, Katie Innamorato, Stuffed Animals: A Modern Guide to Taxidermy, →ISBN, page 45:

Wood wool panels are also manufactured as a composite panel with insulating materials (EPS insulating panels, polyurethane insulating panels, mineral wool insulating panels).

2017, IBO Österreichisches Institut für Baubiologie und -ökologie, Details for Passive Houses: Renovation:, →ISBN:

Fine shavings or fibers of wood, used as a stuffing, insulating or packing material, as a medical dressing, or combined with glue or cement to provide bulk to a building material.


plank road

A road paved with planks (or puncheons that resemble planks from above): sometimes (especially in previous centuries) an economically viable way to build a road passable by heavy wagons, large coaches, or motor trucks.