dodge

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /dɒdʒ/, US /dɑːdʒ/^[1]

Etymology

Its origin is unknown or uncertain.^{[2][3][4][5][6]} Barnhart and Etymonline suggest a link with dodd, to jog (1570s), a dialect verb of Scotland and northern England.^[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

To go this way and that in speech or action, to be off and on: 1568.^[2][7][3] The NODE gives the senses to dither and to haggle.^[6]

Semantic evolution

To play fast and loose is from 1575,^[7] and an obsolete to dodge it, to haggle, from 1652.^[7] The noun is from 1575 in Barnhart; as a clever trick it is from the 1630s in Etymonline, revived in the early 19th century.^[2][3] To avoid a blow or encounter by moving aside is from 1680,^[7][3] and to move to and fro from 1704.^[7][3] The sense to swindle, play shifty tricks, was common from the early 18th century,^[3] and the photography sense is by 1883.^[3] Dodger is from 1568.^[2] In Scotland and East Anglia a dodge was also a large slice of food or a lump of something moist.^[8]

Timeline

• 1568 – to go this way and that.^[2][7]
• 1575 – a dodge (noun).^[2]
• 1680 – to avoid by moving aside.^[7]
• 1704 – to move to and fro.^[7]
• by 1883 – dodge (photography).^[3]

Modern meaning

Verb

1. To avoid a blow, discovery or the like by moving suddenly aside.
2. To evade questions or obligations by cleverness or trickery.
3. To shift or twist suddenly aside.
4. (photography) To lighten or darken parts of a print while it is being made.
5. (bell-ringing) To make a bell change places with its neighbour in successive changes.

Noun

1. An act of dodging.
2. A clever trick or expedient meant to evade or deceive.

Word family

• undodged
• dodgery
• outdodge
• dodgeball
• dodgem
• dodger
• dodgy

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g h Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)