Sawmills

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A facility where logs are cut into lumber through mechanical processes and tools
2. An industrial site equipped for the sawing of timber into planks, beams, and other wooden products
3. A workplace focused on transforming raw wood materials into usable building supplies through cutting and milling techniques

Etymology: "Sawmills" is simply the plural of "sawmill," so it is the form of the noun for more than one such site. The singular is a compound of "saw," the cutting tool, and "mill," a machine or building for grinding grain or otherwise processing materials. "Mill" came into English from Old English "myln," itself borrowed from Latin "molina," meaning a grinding device, and the word was used for grain mills long before it applied to timber. Early sawmills were powered by water wheels driving up-and-down saw blades, so the term carried over naturally from the grain mill to the wood-cutting workshop. The compound dates to the Middle English period, and the plural simply follows the regular English pattern of adding "-s."