Roughshod

[KatyBr]

Emily was a MOTHER, not a mother but THE REAL THING. Her life was all wrapped up, a box with brownbag paper and knotted, in her children. she wore shapeless beige dresses over her thin, soft body. Her hair had been carefully pulled back and knotted possibly three days ago.
she had four boys, like puppies tumbling out of the box they slept in, each boy riding roughshod over the one younger. The boys were casually cruel and destructive, leaving a trail of shards and frayed edges.
ROUGHSHOD
roughshod - definition from gcide
Roughshod \Rough"shod\, a.
Shod with shoes armed with points or calks; as, a roughshod
horse.
[1913 Webster]

To ride roughshod, to pursue a course regardless of the
pain or distress it may cause others.
[1913 Webster]

roughshod - definition from wn
roughshod
adj 1: (of a horse) having horseshoes with projecting nails to
prevent slipping
2: (of persons or their actions) able or disposed to inflict
pain or suffering; "a barbarous crime"; "brutal beatings";
"cruel tortures"; "Stalin's roughshod treatment of the
kulaks"; "a savage slap"; "vicious kicks" [syn:
barbarous, brutal, cruel, fell, savage,
vicious]
3: unjustly domineering; "incensed at the government's
heavy-handed economic economic policies"; "a manager who
rode roughshod over all opposition" [syn: heavy-handed]

etymology
shod
"wearing shoes," 1382, from M.E. pp. of shoe (v.), surviving chiefly in compounds, e.g. roughshod, slipshod, etc.
usageto do what you want without giving any attention to other people or their wishes:
- They accused the government of riding roughshod over parliamentary procedure.




-Katy

[tcward]

Great little story, Katy, and a great word!

-Tim

[KatyBr]

Thanks, Tim,
I saw a clip of a movie with several male sibs all racing for the car to leave for a trip, they reminded me of how puppies will tumble out on top of each other heedless of stepping on each other, And my mother-in-law's stories of raising four boys.

Katy

[Garzo]

Are there other -shods in English?

I can think of slipshod, and maybe ironshod (or am I making it up?).

This makes me think of Teresa of Ávila and Juan de la Cruz: they were discalceds: kind of earth-shod.

[anders]

Not a suffix, but 'shod' in its own right: next to last paragraph on
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invisible_Pink_Unicorn

[M. Henri Day]

Must be difficult to shoe a pink horse....

Henri