Coppiced

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. The practice of periodically cutting back woody plants to ground level encourages new growth and enhances biodiversity in an ecosystem
2. This management technique involves reducing tree height to stimulate healthy regrowth and improve overall forest structure
3. Trees or shrubs are cut down near the base to stimulate fresh, vigorous shoots to grow from the stump

Etymology: The verb "coppice" traces back to a Greek word for a slap. Ancient Greek "kolaphos" meant "a blow" or "a cuff on the ear," and Latin borrowed it as "colaphus" with the same sense. Vulgar Latin then built a verb "colpare," meaning "to cut" or "to strike," from the same root, and the sense of a cutting blow carried it into the forests of medieval France. From that verb came Old French "copeiz," a cut-over forest, which is the thing the word names: woodland cut down to the stump so that new shoots sprout from it. English took the word in Middle English as "copies," and over time it settled into "coppice." "Coppiced" is simply the past tense and past participle of the verb, describing trees that have been cut back in this way.

Synonyms: pruned, trimmed

Antonyms: grown, unpruned