Brush, bush or bushes?

CobyRupert · Aug 29, 2013

Do you call it brush, bush, bushes? Is it a regional thing? A singular vs plural thing? Maybe you're an Australian who lives in the bush? Maybe you're name is Connie (or Phil) and you have brush burn :licking:, maybe you're the 41 or 43 President, ok somebody stop me...

Personally: I call 1 unit a bush, 2 units (gets tricky): bushes or brush. A few plants might be bushes, a hedgerow can be bushes or brush. Once a bush, bushes or brush is cut its all brush. Agree?

dave1949 · Aug 29, 2013

A bush is a plant you want to have. Two or more are bushes. A yard with many desirable bushes is bushy.

Brush is just nondescript woody plants that are usually in the way. Brushy is a condition where a lot of brush is present.

Woods Co. has made this a linguistic mess with their "Bush Hogs" and "Brush Bull" brand names.

kg7il · Aug 29, 2013

How about Shrub, Shrubbery and Shrubby?

I think it's regional and I think it's usage is unwittingly used interchangeable.
Unless I was executing a contract * I wouldn't get upset my them used interchangeably.

*If a contract said "Rentor must not remove bushes, but may remove brush" I would want a definition included in the contract.

If 41 and 43 were shrubs, then then 44 is a weed.

Jim Shooz · Aug 29, 2013

Different places different interpretations. Down here anything that isn't a tree is a bush. Singular, multiple or covering the entire hillside. Even though the bush on the hillside might be made up of trees, bushes, and scrub.

A brush is that small handled hairy thing you use to brush the ashes from the fireplace. (or you put paint on to spread it around)

2LaneCruzer · Aug 29, 2013

dave1949 said:
A bush is a plant you want to have. Two or more are bushes. A yard with many desirable bushes is bushy.

Brush is just nondescript woody plants that are usually in the way. Brushy is a condition where a lot of brush is present.

Woods Co. has made this a linguistic mess with their "Bush Hogs" and "Brush Bull" brand names.

I prefer shinnery myself.

dave1949 · Aug 29, 2013

2LaneCruzer said:
I prefer shinnery myself.

LOL. Learn a new word every day. Nobody around here or Ohio uses shinnery to my knowledge. Maybe the Mainers with French roots do, but I've never run across it.

2LaneCruzer · Aug 30, 2013

dave1949 said:
LOL. Learn a new word every day. Nobody around here or Ohio uses shinnery to my knowledge. Maybe the Mainers with French roots do, but I've never run across it.

Picked that up from a bunch of Texicans that I used to hunt pheaseants with.

jinman · Aug 31, 2013

Jim Shooz said:
A brush is that small handled hairy thing you use to brush the ashes from the fireplace. (or you put paint on to spread it around)

Now I know what all those wooden handled hairy things are floating down Brushy Creek.

Has anyone mentioned thicket yet? Isn't a thicket to bushes as woods is to trees? A plum thicket is a gathering of plum bushes, isn't it? How about a green briar patch? Remember 'ol Br'er Rabbit sayin' to Br'er Fox, "Please! Don't throw me in that briar patch."

2LC, I'd heard of shin oak, but when I looked it up, it seems that shinnery oak is similar and is mostly in reference to scrub oak growth. My aunt used to refer to the area where I live as "little Jack." I thought it was because we were close to Jacksboro, TX, but she explained that this area has a lot of small blackjack oak trees that didn't grow much over 20' tall. Thus, this area was called little Jack in reference to those trees.

dave1949 · Aug 31, 2013

It took me a while to get used to how New England folks use "bush." A "sugar bush" is a stand of maple syrup (sugar, hard rock maple) trees. A "lilac bush" is a patch of lilac bushes, probably due to natural spreading. I guess that regional use of "bush" can refer to any group or stand of trees or bushes that are the same.