floorboard

Old English flōr meant the ground or floor surface of a space — from Proto-Germanic *flōraz, related to Welsh llawr and Latin planus (flat). Old English bord meant a flat plank, a table surface, or a ship's side (the same bord in 'starboard,' 'overboard,' and 'board of directors'). The compound floorboard is a transparent English formation: the plank that constitutes the floor.

Medieval floors were not generally made of wooden boards. Earthen floors beaten flat and mixed with clay, ash, and animal blood for hardness were the norm in most dwellings. Stone flagging was common in ecclesiastical and noble buildings. Wooden plank floors were expensive: they required felled timber, sawing into planks, and skilled carpentry. Only wealthy households routinely had plank floors in the medieval period.

The Industrial Revolution and the development of sawmill technology made timber planks cheaper. By the 18th and 19th centuries, wooden floorboards were standard in English middle-class housing. Georgian and Victorian terraces were built with pine floorboards laid over joists; the characteristic creak of old houses is the sound of dry wood expanding and contracting with temperature and humidity.

Today 'floorboard' is under renovation: engineered wood, vinyl plank, luxury vinyl tile, and polished concrete have all invaded the floor covering market. But 'hardwood floors' remain an aspirational standard. The flōr that Old English speakers walked on has become a design feature.