What is the deal with the words 'panel' and 'board'?

Question

Both words can mean a piece of wood and both can mean a group of people. What's going on there? Can someone shed some light on this for me?

Answer 1

I don't have the answer, but I want to say I'm totally impressed with your question; I never thought of the oddity of "panel"'s and "board"'s shared meanings.

I looked them up, and board originally referred to a ship, while panel comes from the word for cloth.

Answer 2

I will leave discussion of the wood items to a true carpenter--as to the use of the two words in business : A panel is a group (three or more) that is usually engaged in the study / investigation / or exploration of some subject----while a board is a group (three or more) that is engaged in the administration of some entity toward a given purpose

Answer 3

~While in an extremely limited context to someone only remotely conversant in the English language the words might be confused as synonyms, think of it this way:
A board is a really flat chick and a panel is the group of people who will vote for this as the best answer.

Answer 4

actually, a piece of wood would be timber, not to be confused with a vocal quality which is timbre, but if you strike the wood and it makes a noise, that would be timber timbre, the question is, do you get bored listening to a board?