different between mahogany vs rosewood

English

Etymology

From Spanish mahogani, possibly from a Mayan name.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /m??h???ni/
• Rhymes: -???ni

Noun

mahogany (countable and uncountable, plural mahoganies)

1. (uncountable) The wood of any of various tropical American evergreen trees, of the genus Swietenia, mostly used to make furniture. [from 17th c.]
2. (countable) Any of the trees from which such wood comes. [from 18th c.]
3. (regional) A Cornish drink made from gin and treacle. [from 18th c.]
   • 1792, James Boswell, in Danziger & Brady (eds.), Boswell: The Great Biographer (Journals 1789–1795), Yale 1989, p. 178:

     William Murdoch […] produced a bottle of port; but I chose mahogany (two parts gin and one part treacle, which Lord Eliot made us at Sir Joshua Reynolds's as a Cornish liquor, but it seems they make it also with brandy, and often add porter to it).

4. A reddish-brown color, like that of mahogany wood. [from 19th c.]
   • 1848, William Makepeace Thackeray, Vanity Fair, Chapter 6:

     Better she, my dear, than a black Mrs. Sedley, and a dozen of mahogany grandchildren.

5. (obsolete, colloquial) A table made from mahogany wood; a dining table. [19th c.]
   • 1842, Dublin University Magazine: A Literary and Political Journal

     Poets eat and drink without stint — and seldom at their own cost — for what man of mark or likelihood in the moneyed world is there, who is not eager to get their legs under his mahogany?

   • 1851, Herman Melville, Moby-Dick

     Yet habit—strange thing! what cannot habit accomplish?—Gayer sallies, more merry mirth, better jokes, and brighter repartees, you never heard over your mahogany  […]

Derived terms

Translations

Adjective

mahogany (comparative more mahogany, superlative most mahogany)

1. Made of mahogany.
2. Having the colour of mahogany; dark reddish-brown.

References

• mahogany at OneLook Dictionary Search

Anagrams

• Hogmanay

English

Etymology

A compound of rose +? wood, originally so named because of the rose-scented aromatic oil derived from it; applied in later senses on account of these woods’ predominantly reddish-brown colour.

Noun

rosewood (countable and uncountable, plural rosewoods)

1. The fragrant wood of Dalbergia nigra, a Brazilian tree in the legume family, which has a sweet smell.
2. Any of several dozen woods, resembling that of Dalbergia nigra in some respect.
3. The wood of a South American tree, Aniba rosaeodora, in the laurel family, with fragrant wood from which an essential oil is distilled.
4. Wood and plant of Pterocarpus spp., for example African rosewood or mukula or Burmese rosewood (Pterocarpus indicus, syn. Pterocarpus santalinus).

Synonyms

• (Dalbergia nigra): Brazilian rosewood, Rio rosewood, Bahia rosewood, pianowood

Derived terms

• African rosewood

Translations

References

• rosewood on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Dalbergia nigra on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Dalbergia nigra on Wikispecies.Wikispecies
• Aniba rosaeodora on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Aniba rosaeodora on Wikispecies.Wikispecies
• Aniba rosaeodora on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons

Anagrams

• orewoods, wood rose