Wooden boards that form the floor of a building, typically laid in strips.
Combination of 'floor' (from Germanic roots meaning 'flat surface') and 'board' (from Old English 'bord,' wooden plank). The compound word became common in English around the medieval period.
Creaky floorboards are actually an acoustic recording of a building's history—each squeak is a nail loosening slightly, wood shrinking and expanding with humidity changes. Ghost hunters love them, but they're really just the sound of gravity and humidity doing their work over decades!
Complete word intelligence in one call. Free tier — 50 lookups/day.