mahogany
English
Swietenia mahagoni, a species of mahogany
Alternative forms
- mahoganey, mahoganee, mahogeney, mahogeny, mohogeny, mohogeney, mahagony, mahagoney (outdated to various degrees)
Etymology
A word of unknown origin concocted in either English or Middle Dutch from one or more exotic phytonyms and common European words.
Pronunciation
- (UK) IPA(key): /məˈhɒɡəni/
Audio (Southern England) (file) - Rhymes: -ɒɡəni
Noun
mahogany (countable and uncountable, plural mahoganies)
- (uncountable) The wood of any of various tropical American evergreen trees, of the genus Swietenia, mostly used to make furniture. [from 17th c.]
- 1963, Margery Allingham, “Foreword”, in The China Governess:
- A very neat old woman, still in her good outdoor coat and best beehive hat, was sitting at a polished mahogany table on whose surface there were several scored scratches so deep that a triangular piece of the veneer had come cleanly away, […].
-
- (countable) Any of the trees from which such wood comes. [from 18th c.]
- (regional) A Cornish drink made from gin and treacle. [from 18th c.]
- 1792, James Boswell, in Danziger & Brady (eds.), Boswell: The Great Biographer (Journals 1789–1795), Yale 1989, p. 178:
- William Murdoch […] produced a bottle of port; but I chose mahogany (two parts gin and one part treacle, which Lord Eliot made us at Sir Joshua Reynolds's as a Cornish liquor, but it seems they make it also with brandy, and often add porter to it).
- 1792, James Boswell, in Danziger & Brady (eds.), Boswell: The Great Biographer (Journals 1789–1795), Yale 1989, p. 178:
- A reddish-brown color, like that of mahogany wood. [from 19th c.]
- 1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 6, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, OCLC 3174108:
- Better she, my dear, than a black Mrs. Sedley, and a dozen of mahogany grandchildren.
- mahogany:
-
- (obsolete, colloquial) A table made from mahogany wood; a dining table. [19th c.]
- 1842, Dublin University Magazine: A Literary and Political Journal
- Poets eat and drink without stint — and seldom at their own cost — for what man of mark or likelihood in the moneyed world is there, who is not eager to get their legs under his mahogany?
- 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, OCLC 57395299:
- Yet habit—strange thing! what cannot habit accomplish?—Gayer sallies, more merry mirth, better jokes, and brighter repartees, you never heard over your mahogany […]
- 1842, Dublin University Magazine: A Literary and Political Journal
Derived terms
terms derived from mahogany
- African mahogany (Khaya senegalensis)
- African scented mahogany (Entandrophragma cylindricum)
- American mahogany (Swietenia mahagoni)
- Australian mahogany (Dysoxylum rufum)
- bastard mahogany (Eucalyptus botryoides or Matayba apetala)
- birch-leaf mahogany, birch leaf mahogany, birchleaf mahogany (Cercocarpus betuloides)
- black mahogany (Swietenia humilis)
- blue mahogany (Hibiscus elatus)
- Brazilian mahogany (Cariniana legalis; Plathymenia foliolosa, Plathymenia reticulata)
- brown mahogany (Lovoa swynnertonii)
- Burma mahogany (Pentace burmanica)
- cedar mahogany (Entandrophragma cylindricum)
- cherry mahogany (Mimusops leckellii
- Colombian mahogany (Cariniana pyriformis)
- Cuban mahogany (Swietinia spp.)
- desert mahogany (Cercocarpus ledifolius)
- Dominican mahogany (Swietinia mahogani)
- dry zone mahogany (Khaya senegalensis)
- Florida mahogany (Persea borbonia)
- forest mahogany (Eucalyptus spp,)
- gaboon mahogany (Aucoumea klaineana)
- Gambia mahogany (Khaya senegalensis)
- ground mahogany (Swietenia humilis)
- Hawaiian mahogany (Acacia koa)
- Honduras mahogany/Honduran mahogany (Swietenia humilis, Swietenia macrophylla)
- horseflesh mahogany (Lysiloma sabicu)
- Indian mahogany (Toona ciliata, Chukrasia velutina)
- Madeira mahogany (Persea indica)
- mahogany acid
- mahogany bean (Seymeria quanzensis)
- mahogany beebalm (Monarda didyma)
- mahogany birch (Betula lenta)
- mahogany browning
- mahogany glider (Petaurus gracilis)
- mahogany gum (Eucalyptus spp., esp. Eucalyptus marginata)
- mahogany Japanese iris (Iris kaempferi)
- mahogany lily (Lilium maculatum)
- mahogany peony (Paeonia lactiflora)
- monarda mahogany (Monarda didyma)
- mahogany pine (Podocarpus totara)
- mahogany rot
- mahogany snapper (Lutanus mahogoni)
- mahogany soap
- mahogany tree from (Tlalocohyla loquax)
- mountain mahogany (Cercocarpus spp.)
- Natal mahogany (Trichila dregeana, Trichila emetica)
- Pacific Coast mahogany (Swietenia humilis)
- Philippine mahogany (Shorea spp., Heritiera javanica, Toona calantas)
- Philipine red mahogany (Shorea negrosensis)
- pink mahogany (Guarea cedrata)
- pod mahogany (Seymeria quanzensis)
- red mahogany (Eucalyptus resinifera, Khaya anthotheca)
- Rhodesian mahogany (Guibourtia coleosperma, Afzelia quanzensis)
- rose mahogany (Dysoxylum fraserianum)
- rusty mahogany (Dysoxylum rufum)
- Santos mahogany (Myroxylon balsanum)
- sapele mahogany (Entandrophragma cylindricum)
- scented mahogany (Entandrophragma cylindricum)
- Senegal mahogany (Khaya senegalensis)
- sipo mahogany (Entandrophragma utile)
- small-leaved mahogany (Swietenia mahagoni)
- Spanish mahogany (Swietenia macrophylla)
- swamp mahogany (Eucalyptus robusta)
- Tabasco mahogany (Swietenia macrophylla)
- to be under the mahogany
- to put one's legs under some one's mahogany
- true mahogany (Swietenia spp., esp. Swietenia mahogani)
- West Indian mahogany (Swietenia mahagoni)
- white mahogany (Khaya anthotheca)
- yellow mahogany (Dysoxylum parasiticum
Descendants
- → German: Mahagoni
Translations
wood
|
tree
|
Cornish drink
reddish-brown color
|
Adjective
mahogany (comparative more mahogany, superlative most mahogany)
- Made of mahogany.
- Having the colour of mahogany; dark reddish-brown.
References
- mahogany at OneLook Dictionary Search
Anagrams
- Hogmanay