Hedgerows

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Linear collections of woody plants and shrubs typically used as borders in agricultural landscapes
2. Natural green barriers composed of tangled vegetation that provide habitats and corridors for various forms of wildlife
3. Rows of bushes or small trees planted along field edges serving as property boundaries or windbreaks

Etymology: "Hedgerows" is the plural of "hedgerow," so this covers the word's whole history. The compound is old English in make-up: "hedge" joined to "row," a line of things set in order. The Old English form was "heġerǣwe" or "heġerēwe," which survives in Middle English as "heggerowe" and its variants before settling into the modern spelling. The surprise lies in the two halves. "Hedge" once meant a barrier of thorny growth planted to keep livestock in or out, and the "row" half simply describes the line that barrier forms across a field. Put together, the word names the living fence itself rather than the field it encloses, a plain description that has barely changed in a thousand years.

Synonyms: fences, borders, boundaries, enclosures, screens