Rosewood is a dense dark tropical timber with near-black grain. A rosewood fingerboard.
It is heavy, oily and slow-growing, which is why it is both prized and now protected. Trade in rosewood is restricted internationally because the demand emptied whole forests.
1nounrosewoodA dense dark tropical timber streaked with near-black grain and faintly sweet in smell, prized for guitar fingerboards and fine furniture.
“The rosewood fingerboard was worth more than the rest of the guitar.”
rosewood is a timber.
Rose plus wood, from the rose-scented oil in the freshly cut timber.
A compound of rose + wood, originally so named because of the rose-scented aromatic oil derived from it; applied in later senses on account of these woods’ predominantly reddish-brown colour.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA