lumber

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   move heavily or clumsily

   The bear lumbered across the clearing.

2. 2
   verb

   To load down with things, to fill, to encumber, to impose an unwanted burden on.

   They’ve lumbered me with all these suitcases.

3. 3
   verb

   To heap together in disorder.

   So much stuff lumberd together.

4. 4
   verb

   To fill or encumber with lumber.

   To lumber up a room.

Appears in

Simplified etymology

Lumber first meant “move in a slow, heavy, awkward way” in late Middle English. Its origin is unknown, although its form may have been intended to suggest clumsiness or heaviness. The mid 16th-century sense “disused furniture and articles that take up space” may have developed from this verb, while also being associated with an older lumber meaning “pawnbroker’s shop,” an alteration of Lombard. The mainly North American sense “timber sawn into rough planks” developed in the mid 17th century from the sense referring to disused articles.

Exact origin unknown. The earliest recorded reference for the noun was to heavy, useless objects such as old, discarded furniture. Perhaps from the verb lumber in reference to meaning "awkward to move"; Online Etymological Dictionary thinks this may derive from the same root as lame. Possibly influenced by Lumbar, an obsolete variant of Lombard, the Italian immigrant class known for being pawnbrokers and money-lenders in early England. Compare English lumpish.

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External links

• Google Images
• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary