Copse

I was driving a friend of mine home after adventures, and I heard him tell me, "that's the fourth cops we've driven by on tonight." It made no sense to me because I was certain we had seen far more police officers than that, plus I didn't see any when he said it. Then I thought that maybe he said "copse", but that didn't make sense because the road had tons of trees already (plus there was no way in hell he knew that word).

When I looked to my side, I saw that he was saying Tops, the supermarket. I had a good laugh about it, then decided to let him know that there was a word spelled c-o-p-s-e, but is pronounced the same as "cops". He asked me what it was and I explained that it was basically like a small amount of trees in an area.

After thinking about it, I then said that it was a word that you basically never needed to know. We can explain something as a "small forest" or a "thicket" and that the word is used so rarely that you shouldn't be expected to simply know it.

When I got into his neighborhood, it was pitch black outside, so I was carefully driving down the road looking for his house. He told me that his is the first one after the line of trees, which instantly jogged my memory (because that is how I also remember which house is his).

We said our goodbyes and goodnights, and I got in my car and drove off. About 100 feet down the road, I pulled over and pulled out my phone to send my friend a message.

"That treeline you mentioned...that's a copse."