The craft of making things from wood, or wooden fittings and fixtures in a building.
Compound of 'wood' (Old English wudu 'forest, trees') and 'work' (Old English weorc 'action, deed'). The term evolved from general carpentry to include both the craft and its products, especially decorative wooden elements.
Woodwork captures humanity's longest technological relationship - our mastery of trees as material. The phrase 'coming out of the woodwork' shows how this craft metaphor extended to mean emerging from hidden places, like insects from wooden structures.
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