My New Favorite Words

After reading Pride and Prejudice, and now reading The Wind in the Willows, I must wonder to myself just what a copse is. No, not corpse, as that would quite change the meaning of this line:

They proceeded in silence along the gravel walk that led to the copse; Elizabeth was determined to make no effort for conversation with a woman who was now more than usually insolent and disagreeable.

And this one:

"If you are looking for my master, ma'am, he is walking towards the little copse."

Or this, from The Wind in the Willows:

Hither and thither through the meadows he rambled busily, along the hedgerows, across the copses, finding everywhere birds building, flowers budding, leaves thrusting--everything happy, and progressive, and occupied.

So I have learned just this minute:

copse (kps) n.

A thicket of small trees or shrubs; a coppice

(as you may have guessed.)

My other new favorite words are from Bridget Jones's Diary. I love that in jolly old, they use the word "pants" for underwear. This makes me giggle, when you listen to everyday conversation and substitute that definition instead of ours. Tee hee... And the other word that makes me giggle, because I have the sense of humour of a five year old (hence why we got along so well when I was teaching - I loved their knock-knock jokes...) is.... knickers! As in, "This is an occasion for genuinely tiny knickers."

Ah, underwear humour. Classic.