maquis n.

"dense scrub or brushwood in a Mediterranean land," 1858, from French maquis "undergrowth, shrub," especially in reference to the dense scrub of certain Mediterranean coastal regions, long the haunts of outlaws and fugitives, from Corsican Italian macchia "spot," from Latin macula "spot, stain" (see macula). The landscapes were so called from their mottled appearance. Used figuratively of French resistance in World War II (1943). A member is a maquisard.