Chase, Covert, Firth, Frith: Origins, Forms, Histories of Words Meaning Wooded Area

The natural features of a region are its topography (Greek topos, "place"). One of the most important examples is wooded areas.

Woods of various kinds and sizes, along with related natural and human-made features, have many different names. In the current alphabetic series of such terms, here are the origins, forms, and histories of chase, covert, firth, and frith.

Chase
Chase entered Middle English in the 13th century from Old French chace, from chacier ("to chase").

The original meaning of chase is the act of pursuing (13th century).

The chase is the hunting of wild animals for profit or sport (14th century).

That sense of the word led to the topographic chase: a tract of unenclosed wooded land reserved for hunting (15th century). This term is used mainly in England, where traditionally it is distinguished from forest by denoting a preserve that is smaller and more likely to be on private property.

Covert
Covert entered Middle English in the 14th century from Middle French covert, from the adjective covert ("veiled, covered over"), from the past participle of covrir ("to cover").

The original meaning of covert is any covering (14th century).

A thicket of woods or shrubbery offering a cover, shelter, or hiding place for game is a covert (14th century).

Firth, Frith
The Modern English wood-related word frith comes from Middle English frith (13th century), from Old English fyrhthe (before 12th century).

The original meaning of frith is any wooded country (9th century). In recent centuries, this general sense of the word has come to be used mostly in alliterative poetic phrases such as frith and fell and frith and field.

A tract of land covered with underwood and some trees is a frith (1538). The word refers to what is also known as a copse, or small wood.

Frith is used mainly in England and, except for its alliterative poetic phrases, mostly in dialect.

A related dialectal word is firth (16th century), from Middle English fyrth (14th century), a metathesis (transposition of phonemes) of frith (13th century).

Firth is synonymous with frith: a copse, a small wood, a piece of ground grown over with brushwood and a few trees (14th century). Firth, like frith, appears in poetic phrases such as firth and fell and firth and field.
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Encyclopaedia Britannica Ready Reference 2004. CD-ROM. Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2004.

Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary. 11th ed. Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 2006.

Merriam-Webster's Geographical Dictionary. 3rd ed. Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 2007.

The Oxford English Dictionary. 2nd ed. Oxford, England: Clarendon Press, 1989.