hand timbern.
Probably an editorial misreading of hard timber. Subsequently misinterpreted by Wright and Halliwell (see quot. 1859) and taken over in this sense by a number of dictionaries in the later 19th cent., typically defined as ‘underwood’ (cf. underwood n. 1a).The edition of the almanac cited in quot. 1664 with that date is apparently lost; all almanacs found which contain the passage (dating from 1662 to 1708) have hard rather than hand.
ΘΚΠ
the world > plants > by growth or development > defined by habit > tree or woody plant > wood or assemblage of trees or shrubs > [noun] > brushwood, scrub, or underwood
ronea1300
underwooda1325
rammel1338
brushetc1380
scroga1400
bushailec1400
frithing1429
brushal1430
brushc1440
ronec1440
thevec1440
garsil1483
shroga1500
cablish1594
south-bois1598
undergrowth1600
frith1605
hand timber1664
subbois1664
urith1671
brushwood1732
bush-wood1771
underbrush1775
slop1784
woodiness1796
scrub1805
shag1836
chaparral1845
underbush1849
underscrub1870
sand-brush1871
buck-brush1874
bush1879
horizontal scrub1888
tangle-wood1894
shin-tangle1905
1664 Husbandmans Pract. in H. Ellis Brand's Observ. Pop. Antiq. (1813) (rev. ed.) II. 470 Shear Sheep at the Moon's increase: fell hand timber [1662 hard Timber] from the full to the change.
1859 J. O. Halliwell & T. Wright Nares's Gloss. (new ed.) I. Hand-timber, small wood.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2013; most recently modified version published online March 2018).
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n.1664