plywood

Etymology

It is formed from English ply + wood,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} with ply in the sense of a layer or thickness.^[3][7] That noun is from French pli (“a fold”), an alteration of Old French ploi (“fold, pleat, layer”), from ployer (“to bend, fold”), from Latin plicō (“to fold, lay”), from Proto-Indo-European *plek- (“to plait”).^[3] Wood is from Old English wudu, from Proto-Germanic *widu-, from Proto-Indo-European *widʰu- (“tree, wood”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Board made of thin layers of wood glued together with the grain of each layer crossing the next: 1907, in an advertisement in the Timber Trades Journal.^[2][3][8] Dictionary.com dates it to 1905–10.^[5]

Semantic evolution

The word is first recorded in the timber trade, for a board whose cross-grained layers resist warping and give strength.^[2][6] From 1920 it was also used attributively, of things made of plywood.^[2][6]

Timeline

• 1907 – board of thin layers of wood bonded crosswise.^[2][3][8]
• 1920 – adjective, made of plywood.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. A building material made of thin sheets of wood, or veneers, glued together with the grain of each sheet at right angles to the next: The windows were boarded up with plywood.^[8][2][6]

Adjective

1. Made of plywood: a plywood canoe.^[2][6]

Related words

• ply
• wood
• plait
• apply

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ 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
7. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster