I’ve been searching for a bit and figured I’d ask y’all.
How about “copse” (a small group of trees)
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/copse
Thanks! I think thats the closest term to what I was thinking of.
Copse was my initial thought, but there is also the word Spinney.
Yep, came here to say just that.
A copse, as the name suggests, is a stand of trees that have been deliberately coppiced (ie, repeatedly cut near the base so that the rootstock remains alive and generates fresh branches at ground level).
A better term might be the more generic “stand”.
It would depend exactly how big/substantial this ‘gathering’ is, but I could imagine that “Grove”, “Stand” or “Thicket” might be appropriate.
They aren’t exclusive to your definition, but could be applicable.
Came here for grove.
One of the surnames on my mom’s side of the family means “grove of trees near a bog” and comes from the same area as my best friend’s surname that means “evil bog goblin”
I like to think that his family was evil bog spirits, and my family were good tree people, and he and I have mended the feud.
This has nothing to do with OP’s question, I just thought of it when grove came up, and thought I’d share.
I think I need to add both of these words to my vocabulary.
I’ve been known to drop a “hobgoblin” into my repertoire on special occasions 💅
This is awesome. Mind sharing what the two names are? Especially evil bog goblin, wow.
Grove and thicket are the only two I’ve ever actually heard. I’d go with grove.
I’ve always used grove, but wonder if that’s species dependent.
Copse
I agree with others saying copse, as being my first thought as well, but I’m really commenting to say I love the imagery the description, “a gathering of trees” produces.
Yeah, it makes it sound like the trees are getting together because they’re planning something - improving the world maybe.
I appreciate that you’re asking us instead of asking the trees directly and, thus, waking them.
Ent moot
The only reply which takes the “gathering” aspect into account. But wouldn’t Ents tell you they are not trees? Still, we don’t have to cede to their demands here.
Let them present themselves and their objections to being called trees and I will listen.
I think that argument would be moo.
You mean like a cow’s opinion?
Yes. It’s a moo point. It’s moo.
Fun fact: when you see a copse of trees like that, there’s a chance there’s an old graveyard there. Not always, of course. Sometimes they are left as a windbreak, and other reasons.
So you’re saying that corpses make copses?
Heh, figuratively you could say that. It’s more like the trees are not cleared around the graveyard out of respect for the graves.
A stand, group, troop, copse or grove depending on the specifics.
Copse, perhaps.
Totally pointless tangent: looking up “copse” on the Galnet translation dictionary (free, offline, fdroid) the Deutsch word is dickicht
…totally appropriate loanword to steal IMO. Adventure… linguistically!
Sounds similar to the English word thicket.
Etymology:
https://www.etymonline.com/word/thicket#etymonline_v_10751
thicket (n.)
“close-set growth of shrubs, bushes, trees, etc.; tangled coppice or grove,” late Old English þiccet, from þicce in the sense of “dense, growing close together” (see thick (adj.)) + denominative suffix -et. Absent in Middle English, reappearing early 16c., perhaps a dialectal survival or a re-formation.
I had a dickicht and Greek yogurt cleared it right up.
A grove
A murder of trees. /s jk
I’d say a grove
A copse
Spinney is a nice word for a smallish gathering of trees, alongside copse, coppice, etc. I’m not aware of a term for one specifically in an open field, though.
