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Message board > Wooden, and related words
Wooden, and related words
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yanogator
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Wooden, and related words
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In another thread, topolina mentioned the word "wooden", which means "made of wood". At one time, English had a number of similar words ending in "-en", telling what material an item was made from. "Wooden" is still common, but many people have begun to say "wood" instead, as in a wood door, a wood chair, etc.
Something made of wool used to be called "woolen", but that is nearly gone, and people talk about a wool coat, rather than a woolen coat. Similarly with "oaken" (made from the wood of the oak tree). People say "an oak table" rather than "an oaken table." I think "oaken" is the only kind of wood that has an "-en" form. There is a very old song called "The Old Oaken Bucket."
"Golden" is fading in use, but is still somewhat common. All cooks on television talk about their food being "golden brown" after it is cooked. In fact, the word "golden" usually means having the color of gold, rather than being made of watch. A gold watch is made of gold, but a golden watch would just have the color of gold.
Flax, the plant that linen is made from, has the adjective "flaxen", but that is usually used only as a color (and usually a hair color), and "linen" is used as the adjective.
A word that is now archaic is "leathern", and people wear leather coats, not leathern coats these days.
I hope you found this interesting and informative.
Bruce |
10 Mar 2010
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moravc
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Hello Bruce, this seems to be an interesting topic... Why don �t you make a worksheet on -EN words?
Maybe you can add some irregular verbs as well - written, given, taken etc and make dominoes / snap card game?
IF you contribute, you will be able to download the original worksheets... WELCOME to Eslprintables!
Please don�t forget to read the rules What�s this and FAQ
F.A.Q. and have a look at free Tutorials
Templates
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10 Mar 2010
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ebrahmi
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Thank you very much yanogator. It �s the first time I learn the difference between gold s.th & golden s.th. |
10 Mar 2010
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mena22
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Thank you so much Bruce! Very interesting topic.
Have a nice day.
mena |
10 Mar 2010
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MarionG
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Oooh, does that mean I am officially getting old..? I still say �golden �, �wooden � and �woolen �..
Actually it probably does mean I �m out of date...It should probably be "titanium � , �fiber-glass � and �fleece �...........  |
10 Mar 2010
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Kate (kkcat)
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Hi Bruce, I enjoyed reading your post :) I still use �gold � and �golden �, I don �t use woolen anymore, just say wool and a noun...wooden...hm...use both varients...English is a flexible language 
have a nice day
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10 Mar 2010
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Vickiii
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Hi
What an interesting topic.
I agree that golden would infer gold colour rather than being made of gold.
My wedding ring is gold whereas my tacky necklace is golden (kind of gold)
The word woolen is still used commonly here - A wool jersey just doesn �t sound right. But that may be the difference between countries.
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10 Mar 2010
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Jayho
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Oh my goodness - I have never thought of this before.
I say a I have a wool coat yet I would also say that I have a nice winter woollen coat. It sort of depends on what sounds instinctively natural in the context. But, it is always a wooden table.
Yes, golden is now really a cooking term. I �m not sure we ladies would say we have golden jewellery - it might not be real gold but we want to imply that it is .  |
10 Mar 2010
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MartaZ
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Very interesting indeed :)
And when you teach colours which do you teach - gold or golden?
Is a crayon gold or golden? Should I ask students to colour sth gold or golden...? I �d say golden but I �m not sure to be honest.
Have a lovely day Everyone!
Marta
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10 Mar 2010
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yanogator
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We would say to color it gold, because we �re using the name of the color, rather than using it attributively. Also, golden has somewhat the meaning of gold-like as much as the color of gold.
As for jewelry, we definitely want to give the impression that it is gold, so we wouldn �t say golden jewelry.
Bruce |
10 Mar 2010
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