reclaim land

1. Origins, structure, and basic meaning

• Structure: 墾 means reclaiming or clearing land; its on-reading is こん.
• Basic usage: 開墾(かいこん) means land reclamation or clearing, while 開墾地(かいこんち) means reclaimed land.

2. Common pitfalls and similar expressions

• Clearing land and the resulting land
  • 荒れ地を開墾して畑にした means that someone cleared wasteland and turned it into fields. 開墾 is the work of preparing land for farming.
  • 山間の開墾地 means reclaimed land in the mountains. Final 地 in 開墾地 identifies the place that has been cleared.