Thread: Lumber versues Timber

So they can be Lumberjacks and wear high heels

So they don't confuse timber collecting with "getting wood"?


P

Americans refer to timber as the logs and trees (as in tall timber) and lumber as pieces cut into standard sizes and dried.

Originally Posted by bitingmidge

So they don't confuse timber collecting with "getting wood"?

Originally Posted by johnmc

Americans refer to timber as the logs and trees (as in tall timber) and lumber as pieces cut into standard sizes and dried.

So how come the guys who cut down the 'tall timber' are called lumberjacks?

lumber (n.)
"timber sawn into rough planks," 1662, Amer.Eng. (Massachusetts), earlier "disused bit of furniture; heavy, useless objects" (1552), probably from lumber (v.), perhaps influenced by Lombard, from the Italian immigrants famous as pawnbrokers and money-lenders in England (see Lombard). The evolution of sense would be because a lumber-house ("pawn shop") naturally accumulates odds and ends of furniture. Lumberjack first attested 1831, Canadian Eng.

Because "timberdicks" sounds silly?

Originally Posted by rod1949

Why do the Americans call timber lumber?

And why do they spell colour as color and write cheque as check and why etc? etc?

May be because they speak American which is similar and based on English but definately NOT English. :eek:


Peter.

Originally Posted by silentC

lumber (n.)
"....heavy, useless objects....."

well I got a nickname for some people I know now

Then again the Aussie Colloq. of lumber is to give someone a good donging.
Does that show up in the Dictionary.
I have got a dictionary, I know I have, I saw it a few years ago, I think.

I've been lumbered with all this useless wood .
This seat has great lumber support .
Great useless lug been lumbering around all morning :mad: .

Trees are wood, sawn wood is timber, isn't that the way we do it in ozstraya ?

I used to operate a "timberjack" & I reckon mostly we call our "Lumberjacks" Loggers or Tree Fellers'.

Going by his avatart Zed looks like a tree feller.

Ah...Monkeys, wine, & chainsaws, always a winning combination

Originally Posted by silentC

So how come the guys who cut down the 'tall timber' are called lumberjacks?

lumber (n.)
"..... perhaps influenced by Lombard, from the Italian immigrants famous as pawnbrokers and money-lenders in England (see Lombard). The evolution of sense would be because a lumber-house ("pawn shop") naturally accumulates odds and ends of furniture. Lumberjack first attested 1831, Canadian Eng.

Lots
Of
Money
But
A
Real
D!ckhead