From fry + wood, referring to the sound the seeds make as they rattle inside the pods, like food frying.
A compound of fry + wood
Latin frīgō ‘to roast, fry’
Old French frire
Middle English fryen ‘to fry’
English fry
Proto-Indo-European *h₁weydʰh₁- ‘to separate’
…
Proto-West Germanic *widu ‘forest’
Old English widu
Old English wudu ‘wood’
Middle English wode ‘wood’
English wood
Today it means
noun The tree Albizia lebbeck.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / frywood
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