wood

wood · noun, verb¹

1. Proto-Indo-European*dwóh₁
2. Proto-Indo-European*dwi-
3. Proto-Indo-European*dʰeh₁-
4. Proto-Indo-European*h₁weydʰh₁-
5. Proto-Indo-European*(h₁)wéydʰ(h₁)us
6. Proto-Germanic*widuz
7. Proto-West Germanic*widu
8. Old Englishwidu
9. Old Englishwudu
10. Middle Englishwode
11. English todaywood

From Middle English wode, from Old English wudu, widu (“wood, forest, grove; tree; timber”), from Proto-West Germanic *widu, from Proto-Germanic *widuz (“wood”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₁weydʰh₁- (“to separate”). The spelling developed as it did in wool. Cognate with Dutch wede (“wood, twig”), Middle High German wite (“wood”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish ved (“wood”), Elfdalian wið (“wood, timber”), Faroese and Icelandic viður (“wood”), Norwegian Nynorsk ved (“wood, firewood”), vid (“wide, broad”). Further cognates include Irish fiodh (“a wood, tree”), Old Irish fid (“tree”) and Welsh gwŷdd (“trees”), from Proto-Celtic *widus (“wood”). Unrelated to Dutch woud (“forest”), German Wald (“forest”) (see English wold).

wood · adjective²

1. Old English · derived fromwōd“mad, insane”
2. Middle English · derived fromwood
3. English todaywood

From Middle English wood, from Old English wōd (“mad, insane”). See the full etymology at wode.

wood · noun³

Back-formation from peckerwood.

Words from the same roots