softwood
English
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Etymology
[edit]From soft + wood. The term refers to the seed coat, or absence thereof, of the tree's seeds; it does not refer to the degree of softness or hardness of the tree's wood, but it seems to do so and is usually assumed to do so by speakers not well informed about trees and timber.
Noun
[edit]softwood (countable and uncountable, plural softwoods)
- (uncountable, chiefly botany) The wood from any gymnosperm, without regard to its softness.
- Coordinate term: hardwood
- 1952 January, “British Railways Standard Wagons”, in Railway Magazine, page 61:
- The bodies are sheeted in softwood, a double layer of ⅝-in. boards on the quarters, with a single thickness lining inside the steel ends.
- (countable, in more general use) Wood of this kind, but limited to those that are commercial timbers.
- Coordinate term: hardwood
- (countable, forestry) The tree or tree species that yields this wood.
- (uncountable) Any commercial timber.
- You should have used softwood for the frame of this shed, instead of overbuilding it like this.
Translations
[edit]wood from a gymnosperm
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commercial timber from a gymnosperm
tree that yields the timber
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commercial timber in general
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked
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