you're lumber

Yujan Chou

Senior Member
Chinese-China
The following is from a recap of the TV show Succession S4E8, and I was wondering what "lumber" means here.

So when Shiv comes at Greg, putting him in his place for trying to wrangle her away from the newscast set, he responds with, "< --- >I guess my only question would be if anything did come to pass in terms of you and he," – referring to Matsson. < ---- >

Shiv offers to refrain from pulling his innards out of his backside. "Go on, you're lumber. Keep your snout out."

< Edited to comply with 4-sentence limit on quotation (Rule 4). Cagey, moderator >
 
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  • As I understand it, and as you should have mentioned, Shiv is of British descent. In BE, "lumber" = unwanted items, usually stored in the attic or a lumber room.

    snout = nose - keep your snout out = don't interfere.
     
    The actress is Australian but the character is American. Regardless, it's an American TV show and that's not a British term that's known to me (and I watch a lot of British TV shows and movies). What's a lumber room?
     
    I'm of British decent.. only 400 years ago. I don't think this family that has lived for all her life in America are going to be talking in British slang.
     
    According to Wikipedia, the person she is speaking to is her father's grand-nephew so (hopefully) not related to her father's second wife at all. Neither he nor the American audience would recognize that use of lumber.
    A room in a house where lumber is stored...
    Now you're just being difficult.
     
    It's junk that isn't quite junky enough to be thrown out yet, right? So a lumber room is where you keep it? Imagine having enough space in a house to dedicate a room to this, rather than just one shelf in a closet.
    But, if this is an idiom in US-English, it's in a specialized jargon that I've never heard. Can it just be this character's idiolect?
     
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