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 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. Shaks., 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 Sci. & 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., and 1878 Cumbrld. Gloss., Coppy, coppice.
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, -ground, -land; coppice-feathered, -topped adjs.; coppice-wood (see COPSEWOOD).
a. 1849. J. C. Mangan, Poems (1859), 123. The piping notes of the *coppice bird.
1847. Tennyson, Princess, 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. (1708), 318 (J.). You may transplant them [trees] as you please, for Coppice-ground, Walks, Hedges, Rows, &c.
1691. Locke, Lower. Interest (1692), 112 (J.). The rate of *Copis-lands will fall upon the discovery of Coal mines.
1852. Dickens, Bleak Ho., ii. The green rise, *coppice-topped.
