greenwood

From Middle English grene wode (“a forest that is leafed out, a greenwood" also "unseasoned firewood”), equivalent to green +‎ wood.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈɡɹiːnwʊd/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈɡɹinwʊd/
• Hyphenation: green‧wood

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greenwood (countable and uncountable, plural greenwoods)

1. A forest in full leaf, as in summer.
   • 1588, William Byrd, Giovanni Ferretti, composer, Musica Transalpina: Tenor. Madrigales Translated of Foure, Fiue and Sixe Partes, Chosen out of Diuers Excellent Authors, vvith the first and second part of La Verginella, Made by Maister Byrd, vpon Tvvo Stanza's of Ariosto, and Brought to Speake English vvith the Rest. Published by N. Yonge, in Fauour of such as Take Pleasure in Musicke of Voices, London: Imprinted at London [for Nicholas Yonge] by Thomas East, the assignè of William Byrd, →OCLC, number XXXIII:

     Within a greenewood ſweet of mirtle ſauor, when as the earth was with fayre flowers reuested, I ſaw a ſhepherd, with his Nymph that reſted, […]

   • 1599, William Shakespeare, “As You Like It”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies, London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, act II, scene v, page 192:

     Vnder the greene wood tree, / Who loues to lye with mee, / And turne his merrie Note, / Vnto the ſweet Birds throte: / Come hither, come hither, come hither: / Heere ſhall he ſee no enemie, / But Winter and rough Weather.

   • 1751, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene. By Edmund Spenser. With an Exact Collation of the Two Original Editions, Published by Himself at London in Quarto; the Former Containing the First Three Books Printed in 1590, and the Latter the Six Books in 1596. [...], London: Printed for J. Brindley, in New Bond-Street, and S. Wright, Clerk of His Majesty's Works, at Hampton-Court, →OCLC, book VI, canto IV, stanza XXXIX, page 270:

     But Calipine, now being left alone / Under the greenewood’s ſide in ſorie plight, / Withouten armes or ſteede to ride upon, / Or houſe to hide his head from heaven’s ſpight, […]

   • 1820, Walter Scott, Ivanhoe; a Romance [...] In Three Volumes, Edinburgh: Printed for Archibald Constable and Co., Edinburgh; and Hurst, Robinson, and Co., 90, Cheapside, London:

     We who walk the greenwood do many a wild deed, and the Lady Rowena’s deliverance may be received as an atonement.

   • 1842, “The Green-wood”, in Bentley's Miscellany, volume XI, London: Richard Bentley, New Burlington Street, →OCLC, page 605:

     The good green-wood! the good green-wood! / Where early violets spring, / Where 'mid the old oak's giant boughs / The merle and mavis sing, […] My dreams are of sweet music wild / Beneath the green-wood tree!

   • 1900, George Morley, “Gospel Oaks”, in Shakespeare's Greenwood: The Customs of the Country: The Language; the Superstitions; the Customs; the Folk-lore; the Birds & Trees; the Parson; the Poets; the Novelist, London: David Nutt, →OCLC, page 206:

     Warwickshire is, indeed, a county of Gospel Oaks, and many of these, like the others, are huge in growth and venerable in years. They formed the boundary lines or marks between adjoining parishes, and when the bounds were beaten the parson was wont to deliver his homily beneath the shady boughs. From this circumstance the trees have taken the name of “Gospel Oaks,” and though Time has somewhat thinned their number, there are many still existing, dotted about in various parts of this sequestered greenwood.

   • 2012, Nguyễn Công Luận, Nationalist in the Viet Nam Wars: Memoirs of a Victim Turned Soldier, Bloomington, Ind.: Indiana University Press, →ISBN, page 185:

     In a number of families, brothers joined opposite sides. Some fought on the communist side as guerrillas and assassinated their blood brothers who held jobs on village committees. Others who served the village militias shot and killed their siblings who came back from secret guerrilla bases in the greenwoods.

   • 2014, Mari Ness, In the Greenwood, New York, N.Y.: Tor Books, →ISBN:

     When they were young, he kissed her in the greenwood. When she brushes her fingers across her lips, she still remembers.

2. Wood that is green; in other words, not seasoned.
   • 1640, T[homas] B[rugis], The Marrovv of Physicke. Or, a Learned Discourse of the Severall Parts of Mans Body. Being a Medicamentary Teaching the Maner and Way of Making and Compounding All Such Oiles, Unguents, Sirrups, Cataplasmes, Waters, Powders, Emplaisters, Pilles, &c. as shall be Usefull and Necessary in any Private House, with Little Labour, Small Cost, and in Short Time [...], London: Printed by Richard Hearne, →OCLC, page 172:

     For the Spleene. 58 R. Aſhen keyes, and the Greenewood, burne them, & make Lye of the Aſhes: […]

   • 1839 July, Phillip Parker King, Robert FitzRoy, Charles Darwin, “Art. VI.—Narrative of the Voyages of H.M.S. Adventure and Beagle; detailing the various Incidents which occurred during thei Examination of the Southern Shores of South America, and during the Beagle's Circumnavigation of the Globe. By Captains King and Fitzroy, R.N., and Charles Darwin, Esq., Naturalist of the Beagle. 3 vols. 8vo. London: 1839.”, in The Edinburgh Review, or Critical Journal: For April … July 1839, volume LXIX, number CXL, Edinburgh: Printed by Ballantyne and Hughes, for Longman, Orme, Brown, Green, & Longman, London; and Adam and Charles Black, Edinburgh, pages 481–482:

     In severe winters, when pressed by hunger, they [the inhabitants of Tierra del Fuego] sacrifice the oldest women of their party—holding the head of the sufferer over a fire made of greenwood, to produce suffocation.

   • 2012, Edward Mills, Rebecca Oaks, “An Introduction to Greenwood”, in Greenwood Crafts: A Comprehensive Guide, Ramsbury, Wiltshire: Crowood Press, →ISBN:

     From the 1920s onwards a new tier of timber merchants arose, causing the separation of the primary source, the forest, from the woodworker. Wood in its raw state became devalued, whereas seasoned wood processed into planks or blanks, could command high prices. Never again would the two extremes meet until the birth of what became known as the ‘greenwood movement’ in the 1970s. […] Many people attending a greenwood course never made more than one chair. But some people became so inspired they set up their own workshops in garages and back rooms.

3. Certain half-shrubby species of genista.

• green-wood
• greenewood (obsolete)

• Wood Green