Question

wooden adjective Humans have been making objects out of wood since before there was an English language, but the adjectival use of wood didn't come into being until the 14th century, and wooden didn't appear until the 16th. (The word wood has ancient roots, but it originally existed only as a noun.) In Middle English, the adjective of choice was tree or treen, as in a "tree vessel" or "treen shoes." Treen in turn came from the Old English word trēowen, from the noun trēow ("tree") and the suffix -en, which was used to indicate that something was composed of a certain material. As far as we know, no one ever used treen figuratively to describe things that are stiff as a board, but wooden was put to broader use soon after it was first recorded. 1 : made or consisting of wood2 : lacking ease or flexibility : awkwardly stiff

Accepted Answer

October 10, 2015 WOOD-un In the early days of basketball, baskets were often attached to balconies over which interfering spectators could lean—until wooden backboards made that interference impossible. "Nick … is a fascinatingly flawed and sometimes explosive good-guy personality with his own demons. It's this deep character development … that distinguishes this novel from those in which wooden characters are only there to move the plot along." — Nancy Ward, The Alaska Dispatch News, 23 Aug. 2015

Word	wooden
Date	October 10, 2015
Type	adjective
Syllables	WOOD-un
Etymology	Humans have been making objects out of wood since before there was an English language, but the adjectival use of wood didn't come into being until the 14th century, and wooden didn't appear until the 16th. (The word wood has ancient roots, but it originally existed only as a noun.) In Middle English, the adjective of choice was tree or treen, as in a "tree vessel" or "treen shoes." Treen in turn came from the Old English word trēowen, from the noun trēow ("tree") and the suffix -en, which was used to indicate that something was composed of a certain material. As far as we know, no one ever used treen figuratively to describe things that are stiff as a board, but wooden was put to broader use soon after it was first recorded.
Examples	In the early days of basketball, baskets were often attached to balconies over which interfering spectators could lean—until wooden backboards made that interference impossible. "Nick … is a fascinatingly flawed and sometimes explosive good-guy personality with his own demons. It's this deep character development … that distinguishes this novel from those in which wooden characters are only there to move the plot along." — Nancy Ward, The Alaska Dispatch News, 23 Aug. 2015
Definition	1 : made or consisting of wood 2 : lacking ease or flexibility : awkwardly stiff

Wooden Wood Adjective English Word Treen Stiff Made