noun
timber
the wood of trees cut and prepared for use as building material
Where it comes from
Old English timber could mean a building or structure and then building material, suitable wood, and trees that supplied it. Its Germanic relatives include Old High German zimbar, wood or room, and it belongs to an Indo-European family associated with building and the house.
How the meaning developed
English shifted attention from the completed structure to what the structure was made from. Timber became wood suitable for construction and then growing trees valued for that purpose. German Zimmer, room, preserves another architectural branch of the same family.
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Sources
Definitions adapted from Open English WordNet where applicable. License and attribution. Word-history text comes from Lexifour’s sourced social research; pages are assembled automatically, not individually fact-checked on every update.
Updated 2026-09-25. Report a correction.