odd

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /ɒd/, US /ɑːd/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English odde (“left over, single”), borrowed from Old Norse odda-, the combining form of oddi (“third or odd number; point of land, triangle”), as in odda-maðr “third or odd man, who gives the casting vote” and odda-tala “odd number”.^[2][3][4][5] Oddi is related to oddr “point of a weapon” and to Old English ord “point”,^[2][3][6] from Proto-Germanic *uzdaz (“pointed upward”).^[2][3] The step from “point” to “third number” is found only in Old Norse, through the idea of a triangle.^[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Being one more than a pair, left over: about 1280 in Barnhart, about 1300 in Etymonline.^[3][2] Of a number, not divisible by two: about 1375 in the OED.^[7]

Semantic evolution

It was used from the late 14th century for a surplus over a given sum, as in forty-odd.^[2] About 1400 it could mean “singular” in a good sense, renowned or rare.^[2] From the idea of the odd one out came the sense “strange, peculiar”, first recorded in Shakespeare's Love's Labour's Lost in 1588.^[3][2][8] An odd job, casual work, is from 1728,^[2] oddity from 1713 and oddments from 1796.^[3] In betting, odds have been used since the early 16th century.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 1300 – one left over.^[2]
• c. 1375 – of numbers.^[7]
• c. 1400 – singular, renowned.^[2]
• 1588 – strange.^[3]
• 1728 – odd job.^[2]

Modern meaning

Adjective

1. Strange or unusual; peculiar.
2. Of a number, not divisible by two: 1, 3 and 5 are odd numbers.
3. Occasional or irregular: odd jobs.
4. Left over or separated from a pair or set: an odd sock.
5. A little more than a round number: forty-odd years.

Word family

• oddly
• oddness
• oddish
• oddity
• oddment
• oddball
• odds
• odd-job

Related words

• ord
• odds and ends

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 h i j k l Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press