greenwood

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See also: Greenwood and green-wood

English

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Sherwood Forest in Nottinghamshire, England, United Kingdom

Etymology

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From Middle English grene wode (a forest that is leafed out, a greenwood" also "unseasoned firewood), equivalent to green +‎ wood.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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greenwood (countable and uncountable, plural greenwoods)

  1. A forest in full leaf, as in summer.
  2. Wood that is green; in other words, not seasoned.
    • 1640, T[homas] B[rugis], The Marrovv of Physicke. Or, a Learned Discourse of the Severall Parts of Mans Body. Being a Medicamentary Teaching the Maner and Way of Making and Compounding All Such Oiles, Unguents, Sirrups, Cataplasmes, Waters, Powders, Emplaisters, Pilles, &c. as shall be Usefull and Necessary in any Private House, with Little Labour, Small Cost, and in Short Time [...], London: Printed by Richard Hearne, →OCLC, page 172:
      For the Spleene. 58 R. Aſhen keyes, and the Greenewood, burne them, & make Lye of the Aſhes: []
    • 1839 July, Phillip Parker King, Robert FitzRoy, Charles Darwin, “Art. VI.—Narrative of the Voyages of H.M.S. Adventure and Beagle; detailing the various Incidents which occurred during thei Examination of the Southern Shores of South America, and during the Beagle's Circumnavigation of the Globe. By Captains King and Fitzroy, R.N., and Charles Darwin, Esq., Naturalist of the Beagle. 3 vols. 8vo. London: 1839.”, in The Edinburgh Review, or Critical Journal: For April … July 1839, volume LXIX, number CXL, Edinburgh: Printed by Ballantyne and Hughes, for Longman, Orme, Brown, Green, & Longman, London; and Adam and Charles Black, Edinburgh, pages 481–482:
      In severe winters, when pressed by hunger, they [the inhabitants of Tierra del Fuego] sacrifice the oldest women of their party—holding the head of the sufferer over a fire made of greenwood, to produce suffocation.
    • 2012, Edward Mills, Rebecca Oaks, “An Introduction to Greenwood”, in Greenwood Crafts: A Comprehensive Guide, Ramsbury, Wiltshire: Crowood Press, →ISBN:
      From the 1920s onwards a new tier of timber merchants arose, causing the separation of the primary source, the forest, from the woodworker. Wood in its raw state became devalued, whereas seasoned wood processed into planks or blanks, could command high prices. Never again would the two extremes meet until the birth of what became known as the ‘greenwood movement’ in the 1970s. [] Many people attending a greenwood course never made more than one chair. But some people became so inspired they set up their own workshops in garages and back rooms.
  3. Certain half-shrubby species of genista.

Alternative forms

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Anagrams

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