Woodcraft?... Bushcraft?...What does it all mean?

Bushcraft is a word used as a catchall for wilderness survival skills.  However, what about woodcraft, is bushcraft more correct than woodcraft and what does it all mean?

The earliest reference to the word woodcraft that I could find was published in 1847, in A Complete Dictionary of the English and German and German and English, in which was written “wood-craft… according to, in the manner of a huntsman”.  Webster’s Third New International Dictionary, defines woodcraft as “skill and practice in anything relating to the woods and esp. in maintaining oneself and making one’s way in hunting or trapping, or in tracking and studying wildlife”.  And finally, Ernest Thompson Seton wrote in 1921, that “By Woodcraft I mean outdoor life in its broadest sense…”, and “Woodcraft is the first of all sciences…”, he also wrote “Woodcraft in a larger sense – meaning every accomplishment of an all-round Woodman – Riding, Hunting, Camper-craft, Scouting, Mountaineering, Indian-craft, First aid, Star-craft, signaling…”. 

The earliest definition of bushcraft that I found was in The Productions, Industry, and Resources of New South Wales (1853) whose authors wrote, “…we use the term Bushcraft as an appropriate one for that knowledge of the wilderness and its ways which is elsewhere called Woodcraft.”  Webster’s Third New International Dictionary, defines bushcraft as “the skill gained by or necessary for living in bush country” and further defines bush country as “any of certain vast and sparsely settled geographical areas esp. in New Zealand, Australia, Africa and Canada”.  Additionally, Charles L. Money in Knocking about in New Zealand (1871) wrote that he learned “…lessons in bushcraft, such as knowledge of edible herbs and roots, and modes of crossing rivers, snaring birds, and many other invaluable ‘wrinkles’…”.

It would appear that neither bushcraft nor woodcraft is as a word any more correct than the other is and that they both describe the same skill sets.  Historically woodcraft described the skills that were necessary to survive and travel in the woods of the United States and bushcraft described the same skills, when they were used to travel and survive in the wilderness areas of the British Empire.  As I am writing from the United States, to be historically consistent, I will be using the word woodcraft.

References:

Johann Gottfried Flügel, A Complete Dictionary of the English and German and German and English, (Leipzig, 1847), 537. Reprinted in https://books.google.se/books?id=MSMtAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA537&dq=woodcraft&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjdua__iZvdAhXQKiwKHeXHASsQ6AEIUDAH#v=onepage&q=woodcraft&f=false (accessed 9/1/18)

Webster’s Third New International Dictionary, Vol. I to III, (Merriam-Webster Inc., 1986), 301-302 and 2631.

Ernest Thompson Seton, The Book Of Woodcraft, (Garden City, NY: Garden City Publishing Co. Inc., 1921), Preface & 5.

Charles St. Julian and Edward K. Silvester, The Productions, Industry, and Resources of New South Wales, (Sydney: J. Moore on George Street, 1853), 95-96. Reprinted in https://books.google.se/books?id=C6ZJAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA95&dq=bushcraft&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi-h46UhpvdAhVCDywKHbXVAtkQ6AEIKTAA#v=onepage&q=bushcraft&f=false (accessed 9/1/18)

Charles L. Money, Knocking about in New Zealand, (Melbourne: Samuel Mullen, 55 Collins Street East, 1871), 29. Reprinted in https://books.google.se/books?id=KpstAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA29&dq=bushcraft&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi-h46UhpvdAhVCDywKHbXVAtkQ6AEIPjAE#v=onepage&q=bushcraft&f=false (accessed 9/1/18)