Clearfelling

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The technique of completely removing every tree from a designated area for purposes such as agriculture or timber harvesting
2. This method involves the total clearance of trees in a given land section to prepare for other uses or to obtain logs
3. The practice of cutting down every tree in a specified woodland area to use the land for other purposes or to collect timber

Etymology: Clearfelling is about as transparent as English compounds get: "clear" joined to "felling," the act of cutting down trees. The first element comes from Old English "clǣr," meaning bright or free from obstruction, and the second is the noun form of "fell," a verb meaning to knock or cut down. Together they describe cutting every tree from a stretch of ground, rather than thinning a wood selectively. The surprise lies in the meaning of "clear" itself. Its sense of emptied or unobstructed is what turns a forest into a bare patch of land, so the word describes an absence created by the cutting, not the cut trees themselves. The word is a plain technical compound, built in English from two native parts without any borrowing.

Synonyms: clearcutting