assart
Forest land cleared for agriculture.
countable, uncountable
The act or offence of grubbing up trees and bushes, and thus destroying the thickets or coverts of a forest.
countable, obsolete, uncountable
[…] an assart of the Forest, is the greatest offence or trespasse of all other, that can be done in the forest, to vert or venison, containing in it as much as waste or more. For whereas the waste of the Forest, is but the felling and cutting downe of the couerts, which may grow againe in time: an assart, is a plucking them vp […]
Where it comes from
From French essart from Vulgar Latin exsartum.
Adapted from the Wiktionary entry assart (CC BY-SA 4.0).