Etymologically
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fodder

This is the current revision of this entry, as edited by bogdan on 31 October 2026 at 21:21. This address is a permanent link to this version.
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Pronunciation

  • UK: /ˈfɒdə/[1]
  • US: /ˈfɑdɚ/[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English fodder, also foder,[2][3] inherited from Old English fōdor, also foddor,[4][5][6][7] inherited from Proto-Germanic *fōdrą.[8][6][9] It is cognate with Old Frisian fōder, Middle Dutch voeder, Dutch voer, Middle Low German vōder, Old High German fuotar, German Futter and Old Norse fóðr.[10][6][3] The OED takes it as a suffixed (instrumental) form of the Germanic base of food and feed, also seen in foster;[10][6] Etymonline traces it to Proto-Indo-European *pa-trom, a suffixed form of Proto-Indo-European *pā- (“to feed”).[8][5] Kroonen explains the Germanic noun as a merger of two instrumental nouns: in the sense "fodder" it belongs with Proto-Germanic *fōdijaną (“to feed”), while the sense "sheath, casing", as in Gothic 𐍆𐍉𐌳𐍂 (fodr, “scabbard”), comes from Proto-Indo-European *peh₂- (“to protect”).[9][10] The Germanic noun was also borrowed into Romance as Old French feurre (“forage, animal feed”), the source of forage.[10][11]

Earliest recorded meaning

Food in general, and especially food for cattle: both senses are Old English, the first in the metrical charm For Unfruitful Land and the second in the Old English Hexateuch.[10] Barnhart dates the Old English form to about 1000 and the spelling fodder to before 1200, in the Ancrene Riwle.[2]

Semantic evolution

The word first meant food of any kind, but it narrowed to food for animals, and now usually to hay, straw and other dried feed given to livestock in winter.[10][12] Johnson (1755) defined it as dry food stored up for cattle against winter.[13] From 1576 it was used of anything consumed or used up for a purpose,[10] as in cannon fodder, soldiers seen merely as material to be spent in war (1847), later anything easily sacrificed (1917).[10] The sense "food for people" survives as a colloquial or humorous use,[10][4] and slang records it from 1844.[12] A rare Middle English sense, "a child, a descendant", is found before 1425.[10] The verb, to give fodder to animals, is also Old English,[10] and in 1588 it was used figuratively for sustaining a person.[10]

Timeline

  • Old English – food in general; food for cattle.[10]
  • Old English – verb, to feed animals with fodder.[10]
  • c. 1000 – Old English fōdor.[2]
  • before 1200 – the spelling fodder, in the Ancrene Riwle.[2]
  • before 1425 – a child, a descendant (obsolete).[10]
  • 1576 – anything consumed or used for a purpose.[10]
  • 1588 – verb, figuratively to sustain.[10]
  • 1847 – cannon fodder.[10]

Meanings

Noun

  1. Coarse food for livestock, such as hay and straw: The farmer stored fodder in the barn for the winter.[11][4][10]
  2. Raw material, or people or things regarded as material to be used up: The scandal was fodder for comedians.[11][4][10]
  3. (colloquial or humorous) Food in general.[4][10]

Verb

  1. To supply livestock with fodder.[11][4][10]

Word family

  • cannon fodder

Usage notes

In northern English and Scottish dialect fodder or fother also meant a cartload or a large quantity, and in Somerset fodder was recorded as a verb meaning to mutter.[14]

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  3. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
  4. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  5. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  6. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  7. ^ Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
  8. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  9. ^ a b Kroonen, Guus (2013), Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 11, Leiden / Boston: Brill
  10. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  11. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  12. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
  13. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
  14. ^ 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)