Made of/from
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As a result of this, this forum is now closed.
The English dictionary community team would like the opportunity to say a huge thanks to all of you who participated by posting questions and helping other community members.
We hope this forum was useful, and that you enjoyed being a part of it.
If you would like to get in touch with any OED-related queries, please write to
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And if you would like to contribute suggestions to the OED, please do so by visiting: https://public.oed.com/contribute-to-the-oed/
Thank you very much indeed, and good bye!
The community team
Made of/from
Is there really any difference between using the prepositions "of" and "from" in the expression "made from/of a certain material"?
Comments
There can be.
There's a Scottish drink called Iron Bru' with the humorous claim that it's 'made from girders'. They couldn't say 'made of girders'. That would suggest a structure — part of a bridge, for example.
I think the difference — when there is one — is that made from suggests a transformation. Beer is made from malt, as is whisky.
Another possible difference is that made of X tends to suggest that X is the only ingredient, or at least the most important ingredient.
Here are the relevant example sentence from the Oxford Online Dictionary:
These illustrate the 'only/main ingredient' sense.
These illustrate the 'transformation' sense, with the exception of the vacuum cleaner. I don't think we could call it 'made of clear plastic' because it would imply that it consisted of nothing (or hardly anything) else.
Thank you, @DavidCrosbie, though, admittedly as an amateur rather than a connoisseur, I take issue with the suggestion that all great red wines are made from Pinot Noir!
@norwegianblue
Impeccable usage. I would have found it strange if you'd written:
I take issue with the suggestion that all great red wines are made of Pinot Noir!