▪ I. coppice, n.
(ˈkɒpɪs)
Forms: α. 6 copys, -eys, 6–7 cop(p)ise, (6 coppisse, coupisse), 7 coppis, copice, 7– coppice; β. pl. 6 copyes, 6–7 coppies, -ys; sing. 6 copie, 6–7 (8–9 dial.), coppy, -ey, -ie. See also copse.
[a. OF. copeïz, couppeiz, colpeïz:—late L. type *colpātīcium ‘having the quality of being cut’, f. colpāt- ppl. stem of colpāre, to cut with a blow, f. late L. colpus (Salic Law), earlier colapus (Alemannic Law) blow, stroke:—L. colaphus, a. Gr. κόλαϕος blow, cuff. (The AFr. and ME. form was latinized in later times as copecia, copicia.) As in other Fr. words ending in an s sound, the plural was orig. the same as the sing. copys; this led to the Eng. sing. being frequently made copy, coppy, which is now very common in the dialects. On the other hand, the vowel of the final syllable was, as in the -es, -is, -ys of plurals, often dropped, leaving cops, surviving in the form copse, q.v.]
1. a. A small wood or thicket consisting of underwood and small trees grown for the purpose of periodical cutting.
| α 1538 Elyot Dict., Cædua sylua, woddes used to be cutte, Copeyses. 1540 Charter in Madox Formulare Anglic. (1702) 215 Una prædictarum copiciarum vocatur Overekyll Copys, secunda vocatur Feyroke Copys, etc. 1580 North Plutarch (1676) 153 And set fire of all the boughs and Coppises they passed by. 1588 Shakes. L.L.L. iv. i. 9 Vpon the edge of yonder Coppice. 1593–5 Norden Spec. Brit., M'sex & Herts. ii. 1 Enclined to wood, and coupisses. 1601 Holland Pliny I. 372 It is of this nature, To be cut as a coppis. 1732 Pope Lines to Ld. Bathurst 10 For shrubs, when nothing else at top is, Can only constitute a coppice. 1816 J. Smith Panorama Sc. & Art II. 642 In fourteen years, coppices are generally fit for cutting. 1867 Trollope Chron. Barset I. xxxiii. 285 These coppices, or belts of woodland, belonged to the archdeacon. |
| β 1539 Act 31 Hen. VIII, c. 5 Their woodes, groves, copyes, and springs, growinge and beinge within the saide Chace. 1564 Haward Eutropius vi. 53 For the enlargemente of theyr groves or copyes. 1573 Tusser Husb. (1878) 102 Fence copie in, Er heawers begin. 1616 Surfl. & Markh. Countrie Farme 657 Coppies of vnderwood. 1637 Harrison MS. Surv. Sheffield (in Sheffield Gloss.), Item she holdeth an intacke lying between Rivelin coppy and Rivelin firth south. 1700–1 R. Gough Hist. of Myddle 29 Called the higher parke and the coppy. 1869 in Lonsdale Gloss., Coppy, coppice. [So 1878 Cumbrld. Gloss.] |
b. collectively. Coppice-wood, underwood.
| 1577 B. Googe Heresbach's Husb. ii. (1586) 101 A great Wood of Okes, and Coppisse, planted in very good order. 1669 Worlidge Syst. Agric. (1681) 324 Coppice, Copise, or Copse, the smaller sort of wood, or Under-wood. |
2. Comb., as
coppice-bird,
coppice-ground,
coppice-land;
coppice-feathered,
coppice-topped adjs.;
coppice shoot, a shoot arising from an adventitious bud at the base of a tree;
coppice system, a silvicultural system of reproduction of trees from coppice shoots;
coppice-with-standards [
standard n. 20 a], a crop consisting partly of coppice shoots and partly of trees grown from seedlings;
coppice-wood (see
copsewood).
| a 1849 J. C. Mangan Poems (1859) 123 The piping notes of the *coppice bird. |
| 1847 Tennyson Princ. iv. 5 By every *coppice-feather'd chasm and cleft. |
| 1577 B. Googe Heresbach's Husb. i. (1586) 17 The seventh, for *Coppie grounde: the eyght, for Timber trees. 1707 J. Mortimer Husb. (J.), You may transplant them [trees] for coppice ground, walks, or hedges. |
| a 1704 Locke (J.), The rate of *coppice lands will fall upon the discovery of coal-mines. |
| 1851 J. Brown Forester (ed. 2) v. 379 The stoles will, by the middle of June, have sent up a large supply of young shoots... These are termed *coppice shoots, of whatever kind the tree may be. |
| 1882 Fernandez & Smythies tr. Bagneris' Elem. Sylviculture iii. ii. 140 Forests worked on the *coppice system form the exception [in Germany]. 1928 R. S. Troup Silvicultural Syst. xii. 129 The coppice system involves reproduction by stool shoots or suckers. |
| 1852 Dickens Bleak Ho. ii, The green rise, *coppice-topped. |
| 1882 Fernandez & Smythies tr. Bagneris' Elem. Sylviculture iii. ii. 133 In growing *coppice with standards, the end in view is to combine..the advantages of simple coppice and some of those of high forest. 1895 W. R. Forester Schlich's Man. Forestry IV. i. 32 Coppice-with-standards suffers more [from grazing] than pure coppice, on account of the necessity for preserving numerous seedling plants to replace the standards as they are felled. 1953 H. L. Edlin Forester's Handbk. xi. 165 In the form known as coppice-with-standards, occasional stems are left uncut to form full-sized timber. |
▪ II. coppice, v. (
ˈkɒpɪs)
For forms see
prec. [f. prec. n.] a. = copse v.
2 1.
| 1538 Leland Itin. V. 82 The Wood cut doun was never copisid. 1581 Act 23 Eliz. c. 5 §4 Woods or Underwoods..by him preserved and coppised for the Use of his Iron Works. 1790 W. Marshall Rur. Econ. Midl. Co., Coppy, to cut down, for underwood. |
b. intr. To produce coppice shoots; to form a coppice.
| 1928 R. S. Troup Silvicultural Syst. xii. 129 Many tropical and sub-tropical trees coppice with vigour. 1935 Chamber's Encycl. III. 462/2 No coniferous tree has sufficient reproductive power for coppice-treatment. Chestnut, oak, ash, hazel, lime, maple, sycamore, hornbeam, willow and alder coppice better than beech, birch and aspen, though the softwoods often become dominant on moist land. |