Coppice

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˈkɒpɪs/

Definitions

1. A managed area where small trees are periodically cut to stimulate new growth and sustain resources over time
2. A practice involving the cutting of trees to enhance the growth of new shoots for the purpose of timber or fuel production
3. A type of woodland characterized by the regular cutting back of trees to promote the growth of young shoots while providing sustainable wood and habitat

Etymology: A coppice is a wood cut down to the stump on a regular cycle, so that it sprouts fresh shoots that can be harvested again years later. The name reaches back through a chain of blows. Ancient Greek "kólaphos" meant a blow or a slap, and Latin borrowed it as "colaphus," a cuff on the ear. Speakers of Vulgar Latin turned it into a verb meaning "to cut, strike," and from that came an adjective for something that had been cut, which Old French shaped into "copeiz," a cut-over forest. English took the word in Middle English as "copies," and the sense stayed close to its roots: a patch of woodland that had been felled and was left to regrow. The mental picture is of a tree being hacked back again and again, which is exactly what the woodland workers did.

Synonyms: thicket, woodland, grove, brush, copse