Coppicing

Part of speech: noun, verb

Definitions

1. The technique consists of repeatedly pruning trees or shrubs to encourage fresh development of shoots and maintain productivity in forestry
2. This method refers to the regular cutting back of woody plants to stimulate new growth and improve habitat quality
3. A woodland management practice involving cutting trees or shrubs near the base to induce fresh shoots to grow

Etymology: Coppicing is the practice of cutting a tree or shrub down to ground level so that it regrows from the stump in many shoots, and the word traces back to a blow. Its ancestor is Ancient Greek "kolaphos," meaning a cuff or slap, which passed into Latin as "colaphus" with the same sense. Latin speakers then formed a verb "colpare," to strike, and from that a Vulgar Latin noun for something that had been cut, which Old French turned into "copeiz," a cut-over forest. English borrowed it as "copies" in Middle English, and over time the word narrowed from the forest itself to the act of cutting that woodland repeatedly. The meaning hinges on the blow. A coppice is managed by striking the trunk clean through, and the cut is the defining event, so the word preserves the idea of the strike rather than the tree. Russian "kolok," a stake or peg, is often compared as a related form, though the connection is only typological rather than a shared inheritance.

Synonyms: pruning, pollarding