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Is there a word for someone who likes wood?

English Language & Usage Asked by azerafati on January 28, 2021

I’m looking for a word to describe a person who has a passion for wooden stuff, and prefers everything made of wood, trying to fill their surrounding with wooden objects (the chairs, stairs etc).

something like:

  • Wood-lover
  • Wood-passionate

Do we have such a word?

2 Answers

xylophile

The OED mentions xylophilian in its xylo‑ entry as referring to “one of a tribe of beetles (xylophili) whose larvæ live on decayed wood”, so you can use xylophile for your purposes. This word combines two familiar elements from Ancient Greek:

  • The classical prefix xylo‑ as in English xylem, from Ancient Greek ξύλον (xúlon, “wood”).
  • The classical suffix ‑phile from Ancient Greek φίλος (phílos, “dear, beloved”).

lignophile

If you are into combining classical elements of differing pedigrees, instead of using Greek xylo‑ for the prefix to match up with Greek ‑phile, you could instead use the Latin-derived ligno‑ element, from Latin lignum “wood”, and compose thereby lignophile, or perhaps ligniphile.

That one I could find no citations for, but its meaning would be obvious. That’s because in English, particularly in scientific or technical English, we are allowed to mint new words from classical roots whenever it suits our fancy.

Other possibilities

If you didn’t mind going further afield, then for a figurative, extended sense you could allude to matters sylvan or arboreal, although those technically mean “of the forest” and “of the tree(s)”, respectively, not “of wooden products” which you seem to be seeking. Nevertheless both those words could surely provide you with a corresponding Latin-derived prefix if you wanted one, and the result might even be more readily recognizable than the existing xylophilian examples to the less lettered of your readers.

But it’s not like any of these fancy-sounding terms are better for the job than wood-loving as an adjective and wood-lover as a noun; they just falute higher is all.

Answered by tchrist on January 28, 2021

Wood-enthusiasts is one possibility

Answered by J Orona on January 28, 2021

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