[f. STINK sb. + WOOD sb., partly after Du. stinkhout.] A name given in certain colonies to various trees the wood of which has an unpleasant odor; the wood of any of these trees.
1732. Medley, Kolben’s Cape Gd. Hope, II. 260. The Stink-Wood Tree grows to the Size of an Oak.
1827. Hellyer, in Bischoff’s Van Diemen’s Land (1832), 175. The timber in this district I found to be principally myrtle, sassafras, and stinkwood.
1866. Treas. Bot., 1100/2. Stinkwood, the useful wood of Oreodaphne bullata, which has a most unpleasant odour lasting for a long time. Also that of Fœtidia mauritiana and Zieria macrophylla.
1882. J. Smith, Dict. Pop. Names Plants, 240. Laurel, Cape of Good Hope (Laurus bullata) … well known in the Cape Colony as Stinkwood.
1898. Daily News, 13 May, 7/3. From South Africa come feather Court dresses, a stinkwood walking stick [etc.].
1898. Morris, Austral Eng., 439. Stinkwood.… In Tasmania … the timber of Zieria smithii, Andr., N. O. Rutaceæ.
