"wooden (made of wood)" in seven languages
Meaningwooden (made of wood)
Spanish
/de maˈdeɾa/
other source · Latin MĀTERIAM 'timber, building material'
French
/ɑ̃ bwa/
other source · Late Latin *BOSCUM 'woodland', probably Germanic
Italian
/di ˈleɲɲo/
inherited
Portuguese
/dʒi maˈdejɾɐ/
other source · Latin MĀTERIAM 'timber, building material'
Romanian
/de lemn/
inherited
Latin -GN- became -mn- in Romanian: LIGNUM → lemn.
Catalan
/də ˈfustə/
other source · Latin FŪSTEM 'stick, cudgel'
English
/ˈwʊdən/
native English · Old English wudu 'wood' + -en
The Latin ancestor
LIGNUM‘wood, firewood’
All six sisters descend from it, unless marked otherwise below.
The story
None of the sisters has a one-word adjective: they say 'of wood'. Each picked a different wood: Italian legno is LIGNUM (Spanish leño is a log), Spanish madera is MĀTERIA 'timber', and French bois is the forest itself.
English relatives: lignite; material, matter (es); bouquet (fr)
Sound laws at work
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In a sentence
- esTienen una mesa de madera.
- frIls ont une table en bois.
- itHanno un tavolo di legno.
- ptEles têm uma mesa de madeira.
- roAu o masă de lemn.
- caTenen una taula de fusta.
- enThey have a wooden table.