Clapboards

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A building component characterized by overlapping thin boards that create both structural walls and decorative facades on the exteriors of buildings
2. Boards made of wood arranged horizontally with each board overlapping the one below it, used to cover the outer walls of a building
3. Thin planks installed in a way that each piece partly covers the one beneath it, forming exterior siding on construction

Etymology: The word is the plural of "clapboard", and the singular name carries a surprising piece of translation history. Its earliest form in Middle English was "clapholt", a borrowing of the Middle Low German or Middle Dutch "klappholt", which meant a barrel stave. That word combined "klappen", meaning "to crack" or "to split", with "holt", meaning "wood". The split-wood sense was the point: these were pieces cleaved from a log, not sawn. English speakers later reshaped the word. The "holt" element was gradually translated into the English word "board", so the compound became "clap" plus "board", a native-sounding name for a split plank. The original meaning of the sound, a crack or clap, stayed hidden inside the name. Over time the term moved from barrel-making to building. Thin overlapping boards laid horizontally on a wall, each edge tucked under the one above, became the familiar exterior cladding of many houses, and the plural names that whole covering.

Synonyms: shingles, boards