Clod

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Dr. Goodword
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Clod

Postby Dr. Goodword » Mon Apr 21, 2014 10:36 pm

• clod •

Pronunciation: klahd • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Noun

Meaning: 1. A lump of earth or clay. 2. A dullard, a dolt, a moron, 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), and cloddy "full of clods" (usually a field). Someone accustomed to walking over freshly plowed 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 plowed field.

In Play: Today is Earth Day, first celebrated April 22, 1970. It is a good day 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 a good-natured way to celebrate the Mother of us all. Happy Earth Day all.)
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call_copse
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Re: Clod

Postby call_copse » Tue Apr 22, 2014 6:37 am

A favourite word of my father who enjoyed using clod-hoppers as a description of feet either just big or disproportionately large. I don't think we ever used the word in a way that conveyed disrespect for farmers.
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Slava
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Re: Clod

Postby Slava » Tue Apr 22, 2014 8:30 am

By the by, clodhopper has been done here.
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Philip Hudson
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Re: Clod

Postby Philip Hudson » Tue Apr 22, 2014 4:37 pm

John Donn wrote:

“No man is an island,
Entire of itself.
Each is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less.”

Bryant glumly penned:

“To be a brother to the insensible rock
And to the sluggish clod, which the rude swain
Turns with his share, and treads upon.”

I prefer Donn.
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mhowgill
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Re: Clod

Postby mhowgill » Tue Apr 22, 2014 8:34 pm

And "clod hoppers" refers to large boots used by farmers to wade through the mud and the muck in their fields.

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Re: Clod

Postby Perry Lassiter » Tue Apr 22, 2014 11:21 pm

Welcome, mhowgill. Dive in and post often!
pl

Philip Hudson
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Re: Clod

Postby Philip Hudson » Wed Apr 23, 2014 1:57 am

Welcome, mhowgill. Post often. We need the newcomers.
It is dark at night, but the Sun will come up and then we can see.


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