Treen

Part of speech: adjective

Pronunciation: /tɹiːn/

Definitions

1. Pertaining to products or objects made from wood or timber
2. Describing items constructed using the material derived from trees, often in a handcrafted manner
3. Related to wooden artifacts or utensils that embody characteristics of being lightweight and natural

Etymology: Treen is an old English word for wooden things, and its history is a plain one: it is simply the word "tree" with an adjective-forming ending attached. Its Old English ancestor, "triewen," meant "of wood" or "wooden," and the same pattern gave us words like "golden" and "wooden." The Old English form was itself a descendant of a Proto-Germanic word, "*triwīnaz," which was built from the same root that produced the modern "tree." Over the centuries the word narrowed from a general sense of "made of wood" to a more specific one: small domestic objects such as bowls, platters and spoons, the kind of everyday wooden ware that was once common in ordinary households. The word survives today mainly in collectors' and antiques contexts, where "treen" is the standard term for such pieces.

Synonyms: wooden, timber

Antonyms: metal, plastic