Veneer

How to spell veneer

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce veneer

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does veneer mean?

1. nounA thin decorative layer covering a coarser surface, or a superficial outward show that conceals a different reality.
2. verbTo cover a surface with a thin decorative layer of finer material.

Veneer in a sentence

• noun

  The cheap chipboard desk had a walnut veneer glued across the top.

• verb

  The joiner planned to veneer the plain pine doors with oak.

• noun

  Beneath his calm veneer he was furious about the delay.

• verb

  They veneer the cabinet fronts to match the rest of the kitchen.

Where does veneer come from?

Language of origin: French

Veneer arrived in English in the early 1700s, first written as 'fineer', and it traces back to the German verb furnieren, meaning 'to cover something with a thin decorative layer'. That German word was itself borrowed from the French fournir, meaning 'to furnish' or 'to supply', so a veneer was literally something used to furnish or finish a surface. Cabinetmakers used the term for the wafer-thin slices of fine wood glued over cheaper timber, and from that craft came the familiar figurative sense of a thin, attractive surface hiding something plainer underneath. The shift from 'fineer' to 'veneer' reshaped the opening to match the French source, while the ending settled into the English '-eer' pattern seen in words like 'engineer'. The doubled 'ee' in the final syllable is the spelling trap, since the word is built to rhyme with 'career' rather than to follow any '-ier' pattern.

How the word is built

• veneer (from German furnier, a thin facing layer)
• -eer (noun ending reshaped in English)