Assarting

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. The process of transforming wooded regions into farmland by clearing trees and plants
2. The activity involving the clearing of forests to create agricultural land for crops
3. The act of removing trees and vegetation to convert woodland into farming land

Etymology: Medieval English landowners had a legal term for clearing forest into fields, and it came from a French word that literally meant "to grub up." The Old French "essart" is derived from Vulgar Latin "exsartum," a form built from "sarrire," meaning "to weed," which connects the word to the everyday work of hoeing and rooting out unwanted plants rather than to anything grand about forests. The English "assart" was borrowed from that French root, and the "-ing" ending on this form simply turns the verb into a continuous process: the act of converting woodland into cleared ground, one stump and thicket at a time. The sense stayed close to its agricultural origin, so the word has always described the physical labour of making land fit for crops.