lumber

The exact origin is unknown. The earliest recorded use of the noun referred to heavy, useless objects like old discarded furniture, and it may come from the verb meaning 'awkward to move,' which some link to the same root as 'lame.' It may also have been shaped by 'Lumbar,' an old variant of 'Lombard,' the name for Italian pawnbrokers and money-lenders in early England, who likely stored piles of unredeemed goods.

It began as a word for clutter — old, cumbersome things taking up space — and only later narrowed to mean cut timber, perhaps because stacked wood looked much like a pile of discarded junk.

It's worth comparing to 'lumpish,' a word noted as similar in sense, suggesting a shared feeling of heaviness and awkwardness rather than a proven common root.