Deal
Modern equivalent
Typically 9 × 3 inches in section, in lengths from 8 to 21 feet
A sawn softwood plank of customary size, typically nine inches wide by three thick, and the basic trading piece of the Baltic import trade.
The deal began as a specific sawn section and became a name for the wood itself, which is why Victorian furniture is described as being made of deal without any reference to dimensions. Pieces narrower than nine inches were battens and those thicker were baulks, and the distinctions mattered because duty and freight were charged on them. The word descends from the Middle Low German dele, a plank, arriving in English through the Baltic trade along with the timber it named.