southern yellow pine
- noun
- /ˈsʌðərn ˈjɛloʊ paɪn/
- US
- Many builders prefer southern yellow pines for their durability.
Examples
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The southern yellow pine is a popular choice for construction.
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The furniture in the living room is made of southern yellow pine, which gives it a warm, natural look.
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A grove of southern yellow pine stretches across the landscape in Georgia.
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Many barns in the region were built with sturdy southern yellow pine harvested locally.
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The dense wood of the southern yellow pine makes it ideal for heavy construction and flooring.
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Carpenters often choose southern yellow pine for outdoor projects because of its durability and resistance to decay.
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We planted several southern yellow pines in the backyard to provide shade and habitat for local wildlife.
Synonyms
A tall pine tree from the southeastern United States with very long needles and rough red-brown bark
A pine tree that has hard yellowish wood people use for building and furniture
A tall pine tree of the southeastern United States with long needles and strong wood
A large tree with long needles and twisted branches from the southeastern United States used for timber
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase is fully compositional: 'southern' specifies geographic origin, 'yellow' describes a color/quality, and 'pine' names the tree, so a learner who knows the parts can infer it denotes a type of pine from the south with a yellowish quality. While detailed botanical or timber-specific attributes are specialized, the core referent is literal and follows common adjective+noun composition patterns found cross-linguistically.
Etymology
Southern yellow pine gets its name from where it grows and how it looks: it is a pine that grows in the southern United States and has pale, yellow wood. So the name came to mean the large, strong tree whose hard wood people use for building.