Bush

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /bʊʃ/

Definitions

1. A thick cluster of woody plants with multiple trunks that is smaller than a tree serves to conceal or provide cover in natural landscapes while also implying the act of avoiding direct replies
2. A dense group of low-growing woody plants that are generally smaller than trees ; a wild or undeveloped rural area covered with natural vegetation ; the act of deliberately failing to give a clear or direct response
3. A grouping of shrubs forming a thick, leafy plant ; an expanse of untamed natural land often filled with wild plants and animals ; the behavior of evading straightforward answers or topics

Etymology: The most surprising thread is that "bush" once meant a small wooded patch, not a shrub. Old English "busc" and its relatives referred to a copse or grove, and the same root gave Dutch "bos" (forest), German "Busch," and Swedish "buske." Some place names still preserve the older sense, such as Shepherd's Bush in London, where the word denotes a small wood rather than a plant. The English word descends from a Proto-Germanic form, "buskaz," meaning thicket, which is probably tied to an Indo-European root meaning "to grow." Romance languages borrowed the Germanic root too, producing French "bois" and "buisson," Spanish "bosque," and Italian "bosco," so English "bush" and "bosque" are doublets sharing one ancestor. The later sense of "bush" as untamed wilderness, as in "the bush" of Australia or southern Africa, came from colonial usage. Dutch settlers in North America and at the Cape used the cognate "bosch" for wooded or wild country, and English speakers in those colonies adopted the sense of a vast, untamed landscape.

Synonyms: shrub, plant, briar, hedge, thicket

Antonyms: tree, flower, grass, crop, field