Subject: Origin of "hardwood"

From: [email-masked] (David Biggar)
Date: 4 Apr 1996 18:03:21 GMT

"Hardwood" implies deciduous. What is the origin of the word?
At least one authority states that the word "hardwood" has 
nothing to do with "hardness". Hard to believe! Wood density 
is also mentioned as a possible basis for the nomenclature. 
Any idea as to when the word first appeared in a dictionary?
All clues appreciated.

Dave

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From: [email-masked] (Joseph C Fineman)
Date: Fri, 5 Apr 1996 13:13:56 GMT

Hardwoods are, on the whole, harder than softwoods -- e.g., oak is
harder than pine.  The technical distinction agrees with the naive
distinction more often than not.
-- 
        Joe Fineman             [email-masked]
        495 Pleasant St., #1    (617) 324-6899
        Malden, MA 02148

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From: [email-masked] (Avoid Acc)
Date: 5 Apr 1996 09:14:24 -0500

anyone who has tried to nail, saw, drill or axe a hardwood tree is
familiar with the expression:  "Damn hardwood tree.  It's hard to work
with if you don't have the right tools."  Pioneers, not intellectuals,
coined the term "hardwood tree".  If a nail bent when hammering into a
tree, it was a "hardwood tree"; if not, it was a "tree".  As it were, the
"hardwood trees" are usually deciduous (an exception would be Pinus
elliotti var. densa).  Had the intellectuals been responsible for coining
the term "hardwood tree", we would also have a "softwood tree" which we do
not.

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From: [email-masked] (Lars Eighner)
Date: 6 Apr 1996 05:52:33 -0600

In our last episode <[email-masked]>,
Broadcast on sci.bio.botany,alt.usage.english

>Any idea as to when the word first appeared in a dictionary?

According to my dictionary, hardwoods are derived of 
angiospermous (as opposed to coniferous) trees.  This is
not exactly the same as the class of deciduous trees for those
of us who live where some oaks are evergreen.

I can't say when the word entered the dictionary, but
my dictionary (MW10th) says the word entered the language
around 1568.

Back in the real world, virtually all wood that is not
pine, cedar, or redwood is called hardwood.  It doesn't
take much working with wood to understand that the
hardwoods are well named.

-- 
=Lars Eighner===4103 Ave D (512)459-6693==Pawn to Queen Four==QSFx2==BMOC==
=[email-masked]=Austin TX 78751-4617    ==Travels with Lizbeth==Bayou Boy==
=  http://www.io.com/~eighner/          =====American Prelude==Gay Cosmos==
="Yes, Lizbeth is well."=======Whispered in the Dark==Elements of Arousal==

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From: [email-masked] (Una Smith)
Date: 8 Apr 1996 17:37:58 GMT

As used in the timber industry, hardwood is the traditional name of a
category of mostly hard woods.  It is now known that most hard woods
found in the northern hemisphere at temperate and northern latitudes
(where most science has been done) are angiosperms (flowering plants).
So the label "hardwood" is often used as a synonym for "angiosperm".
Some tropical angiosperm trees have very soft wood;  one difficulty
in the tropical timber industry is the proper classification of these
soft woods for sale in world-wide markets.

This is a deep problem of nomenclature, not simply a problem of usage.

	Una Smith

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From: [email-masked] (Don Chen)
Date: Tue, 09 Apr 1996 03:24:24 GMT

>	Una Smith
 
Merely a comment on Una's points. When I came out to the Pacific
Northwest, I found that many houses were sold as having "hardwood
floors".  When asked, people would say that the wood was/is Douglas
fir which I had understood to be a "softwood".  When I finally met
someone in forest products, they pointed out that the density of
old-growth and many second-growth Douglas firs were greater than that
of many of the Eastern "hardwoods".  This does not seem to apply to
newer, managed forests which lean towards fast growing trees and which
put down less dense wood rings.  This matches the logging of say
100-300 yr old trees vs 10-50 yr old trees.  This is partly the reason
the forest companies are interested in logging the old-growth regions
of the west under the guise of culling diseased trees.

Don

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From: [email-masked] (Tony Pritchard)
Date: 11 Apr 1996 08:59:23 +1200

In article <[email-masked]>,
> soft woods for sale in world-wide markets.

Which reminds me -- balsa wood is technically a hardwood!

Tony Pritchard
Lower Hutt, New Zealand

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From: [email-masked] (A.J. Davis)
Date: Thu, 11 Apr 1996 13:19:18 +0100 (BST)

Hallo,

The categorization 'hardwood' was originally applied to 
timber (lumber) that was physically hard.  This meant mostly 
deciduous broadleaf trees (not entirely of course 
since poplar, birch and a number of other deciduous 
broadleaf tree species are generally physically soft) as 
opposed to conifers.  The term 'hardwood' thus became used, 
wrongly, as a synonym of 'deciduous broadleaf'.  Other 
postings have pointed out that the synonomy is misplaced 
because some conifers have physically hard wood.  In 
addition timber hardness is affected by position, climate 
and growth rate as well as by species.  It is best therefore 
to use 'hardwood' or 'softwood' only to describe the 
physical properties of the timber and use appropriate 
taxonomic or invariably descriptive terms for tree species.

Andrew

Andrew Davis
University of Leeds, Yorkshire
England, LS2 9JT   UK

[email-masked]