So there I am lounging on my porch bedecked with all my potted trees & house plants, reading Pride & Prejudice for the second time in my life (someone has said a good book is best read during youth, middle age, and in old age). There I sit on my little wild wooded porch, being the avid gardener, woodland wanderer and expatriate Mainer that I is’, where the word “copse” peaks my interest. However, after I finish the book I decide to watch a movie version, but all the versions to fall short, but then I manage to get the British mini-series with Colon Firth. So I get to the “copse” scene, and they user the definition of the word. Anyway, I will stop beating around the bush, and ask what is the history of this word.
Any myths around it? I imagine in the bowls of English a nymph or of fairy should be involved. I assume it is borrowed; it seems like a word with French roots. The word seems strangely familiar, but that may be because it reminds me of “corpse”. I’ll cut my comments off here…
hurrying into the little copse
Re: hurrying into the little copse
the fairyless definition from etymonline.com:
contraction of coppice, from O.Fr. coupeiz "a cut-over forest," from L.L. *colpaticium "having the quality of being cut," from *colpare "to cut, strike," from L.L. colpus "a blow"
colpus also gives us "coup" and "cope".
contraction of coppice, from O.Fr. coupeiz "a cut-over forest," from L.L. *colpaticium "having the quality of being cut," from *colpare "to cut, strike," from L.L. colpus "a blow"
colpus also gives us "coup" and "cope".
Re: hurrying into the little copse
no dryads gamboling, no corpses, just the fax, man.the fairyless definition from etymonline.com:
contraction of coppice, from O.Fr. coupeiz "a cut-over forest," from L.L. *colpaticium "having the quality of being cut," from *colpare "to cut, strike," from L.L. colpus "a blow"
colpus also gives us "coup" and "cope".
see also wikipedia offeringDictionary
copse (kŏps)
n.
A thicket of small trees or shrubs; a coppice.
[Middle English copys, from Old French copeiz, thicket for cutting, from coper, couper, to cut. See cope1.]
So there can be no gamboling as it is a thicket rather than a small secluded clearing as I had always thought, from the context.
mark wrong-as-usual Bailey
Today is the first day of the rest of your life, Make the most of it...
kb
Interesting wiki link, Bailey. Now I know another term for the "pruning" done to the trees lining the sidewalk at my junior high school: coppicing. Of course, it was done annually there, five feet from the ground, to clear the spindly new growth from the low power lines, and it looked ridiculous.
eberntson: another interesting word. You're generally pretty quiet there on that porch, but you have a knack for sparking interesting discussions. Don't let the dictionary keep you from gamboling/gambling in your copse if you wish.
-gailr
eberntson: another interesting word. You're generally pretty quiet there on that porch, but you have a knack for sparking interesting discussions. Don't let the dictionary keep you from gamboling/gambling in your copse if you wish.
-gailr
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gamboling aplenty
gailr-
Have no fear I am an out & about fellow. Between work, gardening, fine furniture making classes, parties, cooking, family, friends, dinners, music & drinks, etc the few moments of peace I take are precious.
I don't even look up that many words just the ones I can remember and are especially interesting or vexing. No one would ever accuse me of being a bookworm, but wouldn’t that be great to have that much time & disinterest in everything else. Huh, I have been known to drop out of life for a week or so I can finish a large novel. But it is the exception & not the rule.
I do love a good gambol in the copse when I'm in Maine or skulking around Lexington, Mass. Elizabeth in P&P is always gamboling in the country side, the the mini series she is always running from hedge row to hedge row.
Nothing like a good question, even if it is nonsense to get folks to look at things a different way.
Eric
Have no fear I am an out & about fellow. Between work, gardening, fine furniture making classes, parties, cooking, family, friends, dinners, music & drinks, etc the few moments of peace I take are precious.
I don't even look up that many words just the ones I can remember and are especially interesting or vexing. No one would ever accuse me of being a bookworm, but wouldn’t that be great to have that much time & disinterest in everything else. Huh, I have been known to drop out of life for a week or so I can finish a large novel. But it is the exception & not the rule.
I do love a good gambol in the copse when I'm in Maine or skulking around Lexington, Mass. Elizabeth in P&P is always gamboling in the country side, the the mini series she is always running from hedge row to hedge row.
Nothing like a good question, even if it is nonsense to get folks to look at things a different way.
Eric
EBERNTSON
Fear less, hope more;
eat less, chew more;
whine less, breathe more;
talk less, say more,
and all good things will be yours.
--R. Burns
Fear less, hope more;
eat less, chew more;
whine less, breathe more;
talk less, say more,
and all good things will be yours.
--R. Burns
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