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lumber

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Etymology and origin of the English word lumber

Pronunciation

  • /ˈlʌm.bə/, /ˈlʌm.bɚ/[1]

lumber1 move clumsily

Confidence
Uncertain
Formation
Inherited
First attested
c. 1380 Cleanness
Inherited from
Middle English lomeren

Etymology

The verb meaning to move clumsily is inherited from Middle English lomere.[2][3][4] Its origin is uncertain.[4][5] Etymonline thinks it probably Scandinavian,[2] and the American Heritage Dictionary possibly so,[6] comparing Swedish loma (“to move slowly, walk heavily”), a Swedish dialect word,[2][6][7][8][3] which Barnhart relates to Old Norse lami (“lame”);[7][2] Etymonline traces the group to Proto-Indo-European *lem- (“to break in pieces”), so that it would be ultimately related to lame.[2] The OED suggests that the Middle English verb may have been a frequentative formed on lome, a form of lame, and that the word may be partly imitative,[4][9][10][11] and Hoad and the Oxford Dictionary of English call it perhaps symbolic of clumsy movement.[12][13][14] The OED adds that two or more words may have coalesced, and compares lomra (“to roar”) with the sense "rumble".[4][2] The -b- is unetymological, as in humble and nimble.[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

To move in a clumsy or blundering way: about 1380, in Cleanness (manuscript about 1400),[4] where Barnhart finds the present participle lomerande.[7] Etymonline dates lomere to about 1300.[2]

Semantic evolution

In later use the verb came to mean moving heavily because of great bulk and weight,[4][10] and it is now nearly always used with an adverb or phrase of direction.[4] Barnhart dates the modern form to 1530, in Palsgrave's French–English dictionary.[7] From about 1527, in Skelton, it also meant to rumble, a sense the OED thinks obsolete except in the United States;[4][15] a noun lumber, a rumbling noise, was formed from the verb in 1752.[4]

Timeline

  • c. 1300 – lomere, to move clumsily, according to Etymonline.[2]
  • c. 1380 – to move in a clumsy or blundering way.[4][7]
  • c. 1527 – to rumble.[4]
  • 1530 – the form lumber.[7]
  • 1752 – noun, a rumbling noise.[4]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To move heavily or clumsily, especially because of great size or weight: The bear lumbered off into the trees.[3][15][4]
  2. To move with a rumbling noise.[15][4][16]

Word family

  • lumbering
  • lumberingly
  • lumbersome

lumber2 disused things; timber

Confidence
Disputed
Formation
Derivation
First attested
1552 Huloet's Abcedarium
Ultimate origin
English lumber

Etymology

The noun meaning disused articles is of uncertain origin.[2][5] The OED, Barnhart, Ayto and Dictionary.com think it probably comes from English lumber1 (“to move clumsily”), which is recorded much earlier, used as a noun for things that are heavy and awkward to move.[4][7][5][17][2] The OED adds that it was probably at one time associated with a slang noun meaning "pawnshop", a form of Lombard, since a lumber-house was in fact a storehouse for odds and ends of property;[4][10][12][14] the Lombards of Lombardy were well-known bankers and pawnbrokers.[2][8][18] Merriam-Webster and Klein derive the noun directly from that name, from the use of pawnshops as storehouses,[3][8] and Trench explained the lumber room as originally the Lombard room, where the pawnbroker stored his pledges.[18] Etymonline notes that this older explanation from these compounds fails because they are not recorded before the noun.[2] The spellings “Lumbar” and “Lumbard” were old forms of the name,[2] and Weekley cites Pepys's “Lumber Street” for Lombard Street (1668).[9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Disused furniture and the like, which take up room or have been put out of the way; useless odds and ends: 1552, in Huloet's Abcedarium.[4][7][3]

Semantic evolution

By 1649, in Milton, the word was used figuratively of useless or cumbrous material.[4] In North America, from 1662 in a Massachusetts deed, lumber was timber sawn into rough planks or otherwise prepared for the market,[4][7][2] a specialization of the sense "bulky, cumbersome things".[7][14][5] From this came the verb "to cut forest timber and prepare it for market", recorded in 1809 in American English,[4][2] and compounds such as lumber-yard (1777), lumber-mill (1830) and lumber camp (1839);[2] lumberjack dates from 1831.[7] The verb "to fill or obstruct with lumber, to burden uselessly" is recorded from 1642,[4][3] and its modern British use, to leave someone with something unwanted, usually in the passive (lumbered with), grew out of it.[4][10][19][14] Johnson (1755) defined the noun as anything useless or cumbersome, of more bulk than value.[20] In horses, lumber was also superfluous fat (1806).[4] Sailors called soldiers or passengers on board a ship live lumber, according to Grose (1785).[2]

Timeline

  • 1552 – disused articles, useless odds and ends.[4][7][3]
  • 1642 – verb, to fill with lumber; to burden uselessly.[4][3]
  • 1649 – figuratively, useless or cumbrous material.[4]
  • 1662 – in North America, timber sawn into rough planks.[4][7]
  • 1678 – verb, to heap together in disorder.[4]
  • 1777 – lumber-yard.[2]
  • 1806 – superfluous fat, especially in horses.[4]
  • 1809 – verb, to cut forest timber and prepare it for market.[4][2]
  • 1831 – lumberjack.[7]

Meanings

Noun

  1. (chiefly North American) Timber sawn into boards or planks for building: a load of lumber for the new deck.[19][15][3]
  2. (chiefly British) Disused furniture and other useless articles that are stored away.[19][3][15]
  3. Something useless, superfluous or cumbersome.[3][15][4]

Verb

  1. (chiefly North American) To cut down trees and prepare them as marketable timber; to cut the timber of a piece of land.[19][15][3]
  2. (British, informal) To burden someone with something unwanted: We were lumbered with the washing-up.[19][10][4]
  3. To fill or clutter with lumber or with useless things.[3][15][4]
  4. To pile things together in disorder.[19][3][4]

Word family

  • lumberer
  • lumberjack
  • lumberman
  • lumbermill
  • lumberyard
  • lumber room

References

  1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  5. ^ a b c d Ayto, John (2005), Word Origins: The Secret Histories of English Words from A to Z, 2nd ed., London: A & C Black
  6. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  8. ^ a b c Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  9. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
  10. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  11. ^ Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  12. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  13. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  14. ^ a b c d Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  15. ^ a b c d e f g h The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
  16. ^ Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  17. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  18. ^ a b Trench, Richard Chenevix (1859), A Select Glossary of English Words Used Formerly in Senses Different from Their Present, London: John W. Parker
  19. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  20. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.

Derived terms

Cite this entry

“Lumber.” Etymologically, 26 Oct. 2026, etymologically.com/en/lumber. Accessed 27 Oct. 2026.

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