coppice

English

WOTD – 31 July 2012

A recently coppiced alder.

Alternative forms

• coppis (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English copies, from Old French copeiz (“a cut-over forest”), from presumed Vulgar Latin *colpaticium (“having the quality of being cut”), from *colpāre (“to cut, strike”), from *colpus (“a blow”), from Latin colaphus (“a cuff, box on the ear”), from Ancient Greek κόλαφος (kólaphos, “a blow, slap”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈkɒpɪs/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Noun

coppice (plural coppices)

1. A grove of small growth; a thicket of brushwood; a wood cut at certain times for fuel or other purposes, typically managed to promote growth and ensure a reliable supply of timber. See copse.
   • 1907 January, Harold Bindloss, chapter 1, in The Dust of Conflict, 1st Canadian edition, Toronto, Ont.: McLeod & Allen, →OCLC:

     […] belts of thin white mist streaked the brown plough land in the hollow where Appleby could see the pale shine of a winding river. Across that in turn, meadow and coppice rolled away past the white walls of a village bowered in orchards, […]

   • 1957, H.R. Schubert, History of the British Iron and Steel Industry, page 216:

     It was also enacted that all coppices or underwoods should be enclosed for periods from four to seven years after felling.

Synonyms

• copse

Derived terms

• coppice mining bee
• copse

Translations

grove of small growth

• Bulgarian: гъсталак (bg) m (gǎstalak), шубрак (bg) m (šubrak)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 萌芽更新 (méngyá gēngxīn)

• Czech: mlází n, houština f, podrost (cs) m
• Danish: please add this translation if you can
• Dutch: hakhout (nl) n
• Finnish: vesakko (fi), pensaikko (fi)
• French: taillis (fr) m, boqueteau (fr) m
• German: Stockausschlag
• Hungarian: sarjerdő (hu)
• Italian: bosco ceduo (it) m
• Japanese: 萌芽更新 (ほうがこうしん, hōgakōshin / ぼうがこうしん, bōgakōshin)
• Macedonian: ко́парок m (kóparok)
• Ottoman Turkish: بالطه‌لق (baltalık)
• Polish: zagajnik (pl) m, lasek (pl) m
• Portuguese: mata de talhadia f
• Romanian: please add this translation if you can
• Russian: ро́щица (ru) f (róščica), лесо́к (ru) m (lesók)
• Scottish Gaelic: preasarlach m
• Serbo-Croatian: šibik m, šibljak (sh) m, čestar (sh) m, gustiš (sh) m
• Spanish: bosquecillo
• Swedish: skottskog

Verb

coppice (third-person singular simple present coppices, present participle coppicing, simple past and past participle coppiced)

1. (transitive) To manage (a wooded area) sustainably, as a coppice, by periodically cutting back woody plants to promote new growth.

   Her plan to coppice the woods should keep her self-sufficient in fuel indefinitely.

2. (intransitive) To sprout from the stump.

   Few conifer species can coppice.

Derived terms

• coppicer
• recoppice

Translations

manage a wooded area as a coppice

• Czech: prořezat, prořezávat
• Scottish Gaelic: dèan preasarlach

sprout from the stump

• French: rejeter de souche (fr)
• German: vom Stock ausschlagen

References

• Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “coppice”, in Online Etymology Dictionary. [see also its linking entry coup]