Hedges

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˈhɛd͡ʒɪz/

Definitions

1. A structure created from closely grown shrubs or trees acts as a boundary marker while providing environmental benefits and enhancing garden aesthetics
2. An arrangement of vegetation designed to outline property lines also functions as a wildlife habitat and can serve as a natural barrier against wind
3. A row of dense shrubs or small trees typically serving as a boundary or enclosure while also offering habitat for wildlife and protection against weather elements

Etymology: "Hedges" is the plural of "hedge", and the singular has a surprisingly tangled relationship with other English words. The Old English "heċġ" meant an enclosure, a barrier set up to keep livestock in or out, and it was built from living plants rather than stone or timber. Its root, reconstructed as Proto-Indo-European "kagʰyóm," carried the same sense of enclosing ground, and the word passed through Proto-Germanic into Middle English as "hegge." German "Hecke" and Dutch "heg" are its close cousins, so the idea of a fenced planting is shared across the Germanic languages. The most striking kin is "hey," a choreographic figure in country dancing where dancers weave through one another in a pattern. This is a doublet: both words descend from the same ancestor, one through the sense of a tangled, woven enclosure and the other through an interlacing movement. "Quay" is another doublet from the same root, its sense of a fenced landing place by water having shifted from a barrier to a structure built along a shore.

Synonyms: fences, borders, enclosures, dividers, screens

Antonyms: open space, clear area