Hedge

Part of speech: noun, verb

Pronunciation: /hɛd͡ʒ/

Definitions

1. A row of closely planted shrubs or bushes forming a boundary or barrier between properties or garden areas
2. A barrier formed by densely planted shrubs or trees that serves to mark a boundary or create privacy in outdoor spaces
3. A line of bushes or shrubs planted close together to form a natural fence or division between areas

Etymology: A hedge was once a physical fence, and the word's oldest sense is a living barrier of shrubs and bushes rather than anything made of wood or stone. Its ancestor in Old English, "heċġ", went back to a Proto-Germanic root meaning "enclosure", so the idea of keeping things in or out came first and the plants came second. Dutch "heg" and German "Hecke" are close relatives that still mean hedge. The verb grew from the same idea. To hedge once meant to surround a piece of land with a row of bushes, and from that physical act came the later sense of protecting oneself or closing off an escape route, which is how the word gradually moved toward the cautious, noncommittal meaning it carries in everyday speech. Hedge also has an unexpected relative in "hey", a term for a winding choreographic figure in country dance, and in "quay", the landing place by the water. These are doublets: they split off from the same ancestral word and took very different paths into English.

Synonyms: fence, barrier, protection, safeguard, buffer

Antonyms: expose, risk, vulnerability, hazard, danger