foggage means dead or decaying grass remaining on land through the (autumn and) winter. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 88 out of 100.
Why this word is great
FOGGAGE — [Noun] Dead or decaying grass left standing, unpastured and uncut, in a field over winter. From Middle English 'fogge' (meaning 'rank grass, aftermath') + the suffix '-age', with the root 'fogge' likely related to Old Norse 'fok' ('drift, snowstorm') or from a Scandinavian source meaning 'long grass in moist ground'. Unlike 'aftermath' (which is a second, living growth) or 'litter' (which is a scattered, horizontal layer of forest detritus), foggage is the vertical ruin of a pasture. It is the bleached, rattling stubble that hoards the chill damp of the thaw, the brittle architecture that holds a shroud of frost, and the spectral pasture that feeds nothing but the wind—a testament to what endures by simply refusing to fall.
noun
- Dead or decaying grass remaining on land through the (autumn and) winter.
verb
- To leave (dead or decaying grass) on land (in the autumn or winter) as foggage.“For quotations using this term, see Citations:foggage.”