Corkwood

/ˈkɔːrkˌwʊd/ noun

Definition

A lightweight wood from certain tropical trees that has cork-like properties, used for making floats and light objects.

Etymology

From cork (the lightweight bark material) plus wood, literally describing wood with cork-like properties. Various tropical species have been labeled corkwood due to their exceptional lightness.

Kelly Says

Corkwood was historically so valuable for making fishing floats and buoys that it was traded across the Atlantic—it's actually denser than cork itself, but the name stuck because of how similarly it behaves in water.

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