coppice

English

WOTD – 31 July 2012
A recently coppiced alder.

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Middle English copies, from Old French copeiz (a cut-over forest), from presumed Vulgar Latin *colpaticium (having the quality of being cut), from *colpāre (to cut, strike), from *colpus (a blow), from Latin colaphus (a cuff, box on the ear), from Ancient Greek κόλαφος (kólaphos, a blow, slap).

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈkɒpɪs/
  • (file)

Noun

coppice (plural coppices)

  1. A grove of small growth; a thicket of brushwood; a wood cut at certain times for fuel or other purposes, typically managed to promote growth and ensure a reliable supply of timber. See copse.
    • 1907, Harold Bindloss, chapter 1, in The Dust of Conflict:
      [] belts of thin white mist streaked the brown plough land in the hollow where Appleby could see the pale shine of a winding river. Across that in turn, meadow and coppice rolled away past the white walls of a village bowered in orchards, []
    • 1957, H.R. Schubert, History of the British Iron and Steel Industry, page 216:
      It was also enacted that all coppices or underwoods should be enclosed for periods from four to seven years after felling.

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Verb

coppice (third-person singular simple present coppices, present participle coppicing, simple past and past participle coppiced)

  1. (transitive) To manage (a wooded area) sustainably, as a coppice, by periodically cutting back woody plants to promote new growth.
    Her plan to coppice the woods should keep her self-sufficient in fuel indefinitely.
  2. (intransitive) To sprout from the stump.
    Few conifer species can coppice.

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References

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