woodsy

English

WOTD – 23 October 2024

Etymology

From woods +‎ -y (suffix meaning ‘having the quality of’ forming adjectives), to distinguish the word from woody (“made of wood, or having wood-like properties, etc.”).^[1]

Pronunciation

(Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /ˈwʊdzi/
Audio (Southern England): (file)

Adjective

woodsy (comparative woodsier, superlative woodsiest)

Of, relating to, or suggestive of a wooded area.
Synonyms: sylvan, woody

Hypernym: outdoorsy
- 1869, Harriet Beecher Stowe, “The Minister’s Wood-spell”, in Oldtown Folks, Boston, Mass.: Fields, Osgood, & Co., […], →OCLC, page 485:
  Harry, Tina, Esther, and I ran up and down and in and about the piles of wood that evening with a joyous satisfaction. How fresh and spicy and woodsy it smelt!
- 1986 September 12, David Lynch, Blue Velvet, spoken by a radio announcer, Wilmington, N.C.: De Laurentiis Entertainment Group, →OCLC:
  It's a sunny, woodsy day in Lumberton, so get those chainsaws out. This is the mighty W.O.O.D., the musical voice of Lumberton. At the sound of the falling tree, it's 9:30.
- 2002 October, Will Hermes, “Tears of a Clown: Beck is Back, Riding that Midnight Train from Malibu”, in Sia Michel, editor, Spin, New York, N.Y.: Spin Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 112:
  But [Nigel] Godrich is behind the boards again, and his electro-manicuring imbues even the woodsiest sounds with dubby menace.
Of a place: having many trees.
Synonyms: sylvan, wooded, woody
- 1892, Maria Louise Pool, “Concerning Sarah Kimball”, in Mrs. Keats Bradford […], New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], →OCLC, page 251:
  "The first thing he said was he was 'fraid she'd got into the woods. You know they always find um in the woods in the papers. They git confused 'n' they wander round." / "Yes," said Mr. Townshend, "that's about it, you see. I thought right away of Noah's Island; it's the woodsiest place there is about. I sh'll git some men together right away. […]"
- 1893, Annette L[ucile] Noble, “Summerwild Again”, in Summerwild, New York, N.Y.: The National Temperance Society and Publication House, […], →OCLC, page 278:
  No lovelier day, no woodsier woods, or better company.
- 1975 winter, Micki Smith, “Ranger Grads: BLM Rangers will Provide Assistance to Desert Visitors”, in Jim Robinson, editor, Our Public Lands, volume 25, number 1, Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office [for the Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Department of the Interior], →ISSN, →OCLC, page 5, column 2:
  Combing the 12 million acres of BLM [Bureau of Land Management] desert land in California, the new ranger helps protect the desert's fragile ecosystem and gives service to the many visitors who in recent years and in increasing numbers have chosen the desert instead of the woodsier areas for days of recreation.
- 2002 October, Allen St. John, “Where the Wild Things Are: Slalom Star Bode Miller Cut His Teeth at Rough-hewn Cannon Mountain. Is It the Secret to His Success?”, in Perkins Miller, editor, Skiing, New York, N.Y.: Time4 Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 122, column 1:
  Mittersill is even wilder and woodsier today than when Bode [Miller] skied there.
- 2024, Bruce M. Beehler, “Birds in Our Lives”, in Birds of North America: A Photographic Atlas, Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins University Press, →ISBN, page 531:
  If you simply must have a conifer, plant it as far from the house as possible, in the woodsiest corner of the yard, and select a native species.

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

of, relating to, or suggestive of a wooded area — see sylvan

of a place: having many trees — see wooded,‎ woody

References

^ “woodsy, adj.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, July 2023; “woodsy, adj.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.