CLOD

[Dr. Goodword]

• clod •

Pronunciation: klahd • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Noun

Meaning: 1. A lump earth or clay. 2. A dullard, a dolt, a stupid person.

Notes: Today's Good Word has been around forever and has a large and thriving family. There are at least two adjectives, cloddish "like a clod" (either type), cloddy "full of clods" (usually a field). Someone accustomed to walking over freshly ploughed fields is a clod-hopper, a remnant of the disrespect we have historically held for those who feed us (farmers). The same term may be used for the rough shoes you would wear when walking over a freshly ploughed field.

In Play: Today is Earth Day, first celebrated April 22, 1970. It is a good day on which to turn a few clods of earth and plant a tree. Why the birthday of V. I. Lenin was chosen to celebrate the environment isn't exactly clear but we hope that Earth Day will long survive the memory of the founder of the USSR: "The reason I took Bert out to lunch today is that it is Earth Day, and on Earth Day I like to do something nice for a clod."

Word History: Today's Good Word, clod, first appeared in the 14th century as a variant of clot. The two forms were long entirely synonymous but later parted company, the typical senses becoming what they are today. By 1579 clod referred to the human body, motivated by the Biblical idea that Adam was made of dirt (adom means "red" in Hebrew and the corresponding feminine noun, adama, means "earth") but the reference quickly slid to "country bumpkin". By the way, German Klotz "chunk, block" is a related word that passed into Yiddish, whence English fetched it, pronouncing it klutz. (Our long-time friend, Larry Brady, thought this word might be good-natured way to celebrate the Mother of us all. Happy Earth Day all.)

[Brazilian dude]

Someone accustomed to walking over freshly ploughed fields is a clod-hopper

Anglophilia?

Brazilian dude

[Stargzer]

• clod •

. . .

(Our long-time friend, Larry Brady, thought this word might be good-natured way to celebrate the Mother of us all. Happy Earth Day all.)

And there is no bigger one on the alphaAgora than yours truly . . . . . . my wife did take me out to dinner last night . . .

[frank]

Word History: Today's Good Word, clod, first appeared in the 14th century as a variant of clot. [...] By 1579 clod referred to the human body, motivated by the Biblical idea that Adam was made of dirt (adom means "red" in Hebrew and the corresponding feminine noun, adama, means "earth") but the reference quickly slid to "country bumpkin". By the way, German Klotz "chunk, block" is a related word that passed into Yiddish, whence English fetched it, pronouncing it klutz.

In Dutch, 'kloot' the word has gained an extra meaning, apart from the rather obselete 'part, chunk of earth'. (btw, the word 'aardkloot' refers to the whole planet earth). 'Kloot' also means 'testicle', though it is rather vulgar and is often often used as a curse word. Something that is 'klote' is really bad (sometimes due to bad luck).

Frank

[azhreia]

Someone accustomed to walking over freshly ploughed fields is a clod-hopper

Clod-hopper is used to mean "foot", clod-hoppers = "feet" in Australian slang, frequently denoting feet of a particularly large size.

Thus, "move yer clod-hoppers!" is a request to move one's feet from a path or area where the other person is attempting to move.

Azh

[Dr. Goodword]

We say the same thing down South in the US, except you have to be wearing (large) shoes. Misinterpretation of the US word? (That is one of the ways languages develop.)

[tcward]

And "clod" always reminds me of John Donne's famous Meditation:

No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main; if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less...

-Tim

[Perry]

• clod •

. . .

(Our long-time friend, Larry Brady, thought this word might be good-natured way to celebrate the Mother of us all. Happy Earth Day all.)

And there is no bigger one on the alphaAgora than yours truly . . . . . . my wife did take me out to dinner last night . . .

So Larry, are you saying that you are a clod, or the mother of us all?

BTW (to Dr. Goodword). I believe that the Yiddish "klutz" is a log. There is a common insult, "du bist a klutz mit oigen" (you're just a log with eyes).