Boscage

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /bɒskɪdʒ/

Definitions

1. A thicket composed of densely packed shrubs and small trees that provides refuge for various animals
2. An area densely populated with bushes and undergrowth that forms a habitat for wildlife
3. A compact cluster of shrubs and small trees creating a leafy cover often found in woodland areas

Etymology: "Boscage" comes to English from Old French, where "boscage" meant woodland or a grove of trees. The French word was built on "bosc," a wood, which itself traces back to a Late Latin "boscus," borrowed from a Germanic source. Frankish speakers used a word like "busk," meaning forest or woods, and it is closely related to Middle Dutch "busch," the ancestor of the modern English "bush." So the same Germanic root that gives us a humble shrub also sits at the heart of this more ornamental term. English adopted the word in the Middle English period, when it still meant a wooded area. Over time its sense narrowed from a whole forest to a dense tangle of shrubs and low growth, which is the meaning it keeps today.

Synonyms: thicket, grove