milpa

[ mil-puh ]

noun

(in certain tropical regions) a tract of land cleared from the jungle, usually by burning, farmed for a few seasons, and then abandoned.

Origin of milpa

1835–45, Americanism;<Mexican Spanish <Nahuatl mīlpan, equivalent to mīl(li) cultivated field + -pan locative suffix

The agente rode with us in the morning quite a league upon our road, to a place which he was clearing for a milpa.
In Indian Mexico (1908) | Frederick Starr
The mound was discovered by the Indians when cutting down virgin bush to make a milpa, or corn plantation.
The Maya Indians of Southern Yucatan and Northern British Honduras | Thomas William Francis Gann
It was discovered by an Indian, who had cut a piece of virgin bush with the object of making a milpa.
The Maya Indians of Southern Yucatan and Northern British Honduras | Thomas William Francis Gann
milpa roza is, literally, field cleared of underbrush and ready for planting.
Reports on the Maya Indians of Yucatan | Santiago Mendez
If the savages have extended their milpa clearings since our visit, the falling trees have probably spoiled these walls by now.
Inca Land | Hiram Bingham

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