07 October 2004

Copse - Word for the Day, Thursday, 7 October, 2004

copse · KOPS · noun

:a thicket or grove of small trees.

A lit window shone from between the trees below them, then vanished again as the car dipped over a ditch and passed through a copse.
--Kate Bingham,
Mummy's Legs

Among the mountains, hills, streams, waterfalls, and little
copses, the child rejoiced in "savouring the delights of
freedom" that stimulated his boyish dreams and reveries.
--Suheil Bushrui and Joe Jenkins,
Kahlil Gibran: Man and
Poet

They sang freely in the copses and thickets round Bohain,
and in the ruins of the mediaeval castle where he played as
a boy.
--Hilary Spurling,
The Unknown Matisse

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Copse derives from Old French copeiz, "a thicket for cutting," from coper, couper, "to cut." It is related to coupon, at root "the part that is cut off."


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