mahogany

Etymology

Its origin is uncertain and disputed.^{[2][3][4][5][6][7]} The word is first found in 17th-century English writings about Jamaica.^[2] The OED suggests that it may ultimately be a borrowing of Lokono maga (“mahogany”), recorded in 1528 in a Spanish text from Puerto Rico, or of a related word.^[2] The American Heritage Dictionary likewise thinks it perhaps ultimately Taíno and compares maga in Eyeri, the Taíno of Puerto Rico.^[8] Etymonline and Barnhart derive it from obsolete Spanish mahogani, perhaps from a native name of the tree in Maya;^[9][10] the OED instead takes the English word as the source of mahagoni, the species name that Linnaeus used in 1759, and of the forms in other European languages, such as French mahogani, Italian mogano, German Mahagoni and Dutch mahonie.^[2] A derivation from Yoruba oganwo, a Nigerian name for the African tree, has also been proposed but is not widely accepted.^[2] The Spanish name of the tree is caoba, from Taíno kaóban.^[2][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

The wood of the tree: 1660, in The State of Jamaica.^[2][3] Barnhart dates the word to 1671, as mohogeney,^[10][11] and Etymonline to the 1670s.^[9]

Semantic evolution

The name was at first used of the wood, valued for its reddish-brown colour and its high polish; it was applied to the tree itself from 1759.^[2][9] From 1780 it was also given to the wood of other, mostly unrelated trees that look like it.^[2] The adjective, made of mahogany, is recorded from 1730,^[2][10][9] and the colour sense is recorded as an adjective from before 1744, and as a noun from 1822.^[2] Because fine tables were made of the wood, a mahogany was colloquially a dining table from 1837 (to put one's feet under someone's mahogany was to dine with them), and later, first in the United States, a bar counter (1896).^[2] In Cornwall mahogany was a drink of two parts gin and one part treacle, mentioned by Johnson in 1781,^[12][13][2] and elsewhere it was a strong mix of brandy and water.^[2][12] In Ireland, mahogany acquaintances were people one knew only from dining and drinking together.^[13]

Timeline

• 1660 – the wood of a West Indian tree.^[2][3]
• 1671 – spelled mohogeney.^[10][11]
• 1730 – adjective, made of mahogany.^[2][10]
• before 1744 – adjective, reddish-brown.^[2]
• 1759 – the tree itself.^[2][9]
• 1780 – the wood of other trees resembling mahogany.^[2]
• 1791 – a Cornish drink of gin and treacle.^[2][12]
• 1822 – noun, the reddish-brown colour.^[2]
• 1837 – colloquially, a dining table (obsolete by 1891).^[2]
• 1896 – a bar counter.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. Any of several tropical American evergreen trees of the genus Swietenia, valued for their hard wood.^[14][8][3]
2. The hard, reddish-brown wood of these trees, much used for furniture and cabinetwork: a polished mahogany sideboard.^{[14][8][3][2]}
3. Any of several other trees with similar wood, such as African mahogany.^[14][8][2]
4. A rich reddish-brown colour.^[14][2]

Adjective

1. Made of mahogany.^[2][14]
2. Of a rich reddish-brown colour: mahogany hair.^[2][14]

Related words

• acajou

References

1. ^ a b 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 u v w x y z 27 28 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
9. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
10. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
11. ^ a b c Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
12. ^ a b c Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
13. ^ a b Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
14. ^ a b c d e f Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins