Mencken again:
"Lumber, in eighteenth century English, meant disused furniture, and this is its common meaning in England today, as is shown by lumber-room. But the colonists early employed it to designate cut timber, and that use of it is now universal in America. Its familiar derivatives, e. g., lumber-yard, lumberman, lumberjack, greatly reinforce this usage. "
I read somewhere a long time ago that "lumber" comes from
"Lombard" in northern Italy, who were pawnbrokers who accepted timbers as collateral for cash loans. And the English use of lumber meaning stored no longer used items
derived from the hodgepodge to be found in a pawnbroker's place of business.
Webster's 1913 Dictionary
Definition: \Lum"ber\, n. [Prob. fr. Lombard, the Lombards being the
money lenders and pawnbrokers of the Middle Ages. A lumber
room was, according to Trench, originally a Lombard room, or
room where the Lombard pawnbroker stored his pledges. See
{Lombard}.]
1. A pawnbroker's shop, or room for storing articles put in
pawn; hence, a pledge, or pawn. [Obs.]
They put all the little plate they had in the
lumber, which is pawning it, till the ships came.
--Lady Murray.
2. Old or refuse household stuff; things cumbrous, or bulky
and useless, or of small value.
3. Timber sawed or split into the form of beams, joists,
boards, planks, staves, hoops, etc.; esp., that which is
smaller than heavy timber. [U.S.]
{Lumber kiln}, a room in which timber or lumber is dried by
artificial heat. [U.S.]
{Lumber room}, a room in which unused furniture or other
lumber is kept. [U.S.]
{Lumber wagon}, a heavy rough wagon, without springs, used
for general farmwork, etc.
\Lum"ber\, b. t. [imp. & p. p. {Lumbered}; p. pr. & vb.
n. {Lumbering}.]
1. To heap together in disorder. `` Stuff lumbered
together.'' --Rymer.
2. To fill or encumber with lumber; as, to lumber up a room.
\Lum"ber\, v. i.
1. To move heavily, as if burdened.
2. [Cf. dial. Sw. lomra to resound.] To make a sound as if
moving heavily or clumsily; to rumble. --Cowper.
3. To cut logs in the forest, or prepare timber for market.
[U.S.]
OP
