hod

Etymology 1

Borrowed from Scots hod (“to jog along on horseback”), probably related to hotch (“(verb) to move up and down jerkily, bob; to jog along on horseback; to hop like a frog; to fidget; to shrug; to heave with laughter; to cause to move jerkily; to shift in a sitting position to make room for others; to be overrun with; to swarm; (figuratively) to be angry; (noun) a jerk, jolt; a shrug; a fidget, twitch; a swarm of vermin; large, ungainly woman; untidy woman (figuratively) a hostile encounter, clash; state of disorder and filth, mess”) (whence English hotch (“to move irregularly up and down; to swarm”) (chiefly Scotland)), from Late Middle English hotchen (“to move jerkily, jolt; to attack (someone) (?)”), from Anglo-Norman hocher (“to shake (something) to and fro, jostle; to attack”) and Middle French hocher, Middle French, Old French hochier (“to shake (something) to and fro, jostle; to be unstable or wobbly, shake”) (modern French hocher (“to nod the head”)), from Frankish *hotsōn, *hottisōn, from *hottōn (“to shake; to toss”), perhaps ultimately from Proto-Germanic *hud- (“to shake”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ket- or *kwēt- (“to rock back and forth; to shake”), probably originally onomatopoeic. Compare Scots hotter (“(verb) to move in a jerky, uneven manner; to jolt; to shake; to walk unsteadily, totter; to shiver, shudder; to shake (with laughter); of liquid, etc.: to boil, bubble, seethe, sputter; to crowd, swarm; (noun) jolting or shaking; rattling sound; bubbling of boiling liquid; a shake, shiver; crowd, seething mass; motion or noise of such a crowd; jumbled heap”)). cognates * Middle Dutch hutsen (modern Dutch hutsen (“to jog, jolt; to shake”)), Middle Dutch hotsen (modern Dutch hotsen, hossen (“to shake or swing to and fro; to run quickly”)) * German hotzen (“to shake or swing to and fro; to run quickly”) (Southern Germany) * Low German hūdern (“to shake; to shudder”) * Middle High German hozzen (“act of swinging someone to and fro to punish them (?)”) * Old English hūdenian (“to rock back and forth, shake, sway”)

verb

1. (intransitive, Scotland, obsolete) To bob up and down on horseback, as an inexperienced rider may do; to jog.
   To have caught young wild ducks—a dozen— / So we "hodded" them in a hat to town, / To get them "pot-luck"—at least a "shake down," / With some tame, domestic cousin. 1851, J. de Jean [i.e., John de Jean Fraser], “The Wild Ducks”, in Poems, Dublin: James McGlashan,[…]; London; Liverpool: W[illia]m S. Orr and Co., →OCLC, stanza 2, page 144
   They hodded off the furniture, moth-eaten, cracked, and old, / For iron old the swords and helms and dish-covers they sold; […] 4 October 1879, C. G., “The Legend of Doppelganger Tower”, in Young Ireland. An Irish Magazine of Entertainment and Instruction, volume V, number 40, Dublin: Published at the offices of the “Nation” and “Weekly News,”[…], →OCLC, page 632, column 2
   Hoddin gray, a coarse grey woollen cloth, called "hoddin" from country people wearing it, who "hodded," that is, jogged along on carthorses. [1884], “For a’ That, and a’ That”, in Sonnenschein’s Special Merit Readers. Standard III, London: W[illiam] Swan Sonnenschein & Co.,[…], →OCLC, page 8

Etymology 2

carrying a hod (noun sense 1) over his shoulder.]] Probably an alteration of hot (“(Northern England, Scotland) large basket for carrying earth, etc.”), from Middle English hott, hote, hotte (“large basket or pannier for carrying earth, etc.; unit of measure for grain; hut or shed (perhaps originally of wattlework); lump of dirt (?)”) [and other forms], from Anglo-Norman and Old French hote, hotte (“large basket carried on the back”) (modern French hotte (“carrying basket”)), from Frankish *hotta (“basket”), perhaps from Proto-Germanic *hud- (“to shake”) (see further at etymology 1), ultimately an onomatopoeia of the swaying movement of such a basket (compare Middle Dutch hotten (“to jolt; shake”)). cognates * German Hotte (“wooden basket carried on the back; (specifically) basket for collecting grapes from a vineyard”) (Rhineland, Swabia), Hutte (“basket for collecting grapes from a vineyard”) (Alsace, Switzerland) * Late Latin hotta, hottus (“hod”)

noun

1. A three-sided box mounted on a pole for carrying bricks, mortar, or other construction materials over the shoulder.
   And then Arthur and I, we soon drew our hods / And we scarce gave them time for to draw their own blades / When a trusty shillelagh came over their heads / And bade them take that as fair warning. c. 1810?, “Arthur MacBride”, in Patrick Crotty, editor, The Penguin Book of Irish Poetry (Penguin Classics), London, New York, N.Y.: Penguin Books, published 2012, part IX (Songs and Ballads since 1801), stanza 6, page 924
   Independent candidate, who wants the Irish vote and Dutch suffrages, entered, borne in a mortar hod, bare-footed, with a shillelagh in one hand, a whiskey bottle in the other, a Dutch pipe in his mouth, and a small barrel of beer strapped to his back. 1855, Q. K. Philander Doesticks [pseudonym], “’Lection Day.—‘Paddy’ versus ‘Sam.’”, in Doesticks: What He Says, New York, N.Y.: Edward Livermore,[…], →OCLC, page 277
   Make your son a shoemaker,—a bricklayer,—or give him no more education than shall fit him to carry a hod,—and with patience and industry he may make a fortune, and he may do it with uninjured feelings; […] 1865, A[mbrose] H[ardinge] Giffard, Edward Giffard, Who Was My Grandfather?: An Autobiographical Sketch, London: […] Harrison and Sons,[…], →OCLC, page 13
   Put a clay pipe in [Richard] Nixon’s mouth and a hod on his shoulder or a shillelagh in his hand, and there, complete with beetling brows and uptilted nose, is the original of the old cartoon stereotype of the fighting Irishman—the Irishman of the draft riots or of Punch’s version of the Sinn Feiner. 1960, Stewart Alsop, “How They Got that Way: Nixon”, in Nixon & Rockefeller: A Double Portrait, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday & Company, →OCLC, page 124
2. The amount of material held by a hod (sense 1); a hodful.
   [T]he women do the hardest work—carry hods of mortar, unload vessels, drive oxen, &c. … 1867 May, “a vacation tourist” [pseudonym], “Passing Notes on Our Neighbours”, in Temple Bar: A London Magazine for Town and Country Readers, volume XX, London: Richard Bentley,[…]; New York, N.Y.: Willmer and Rogers, published July 1867, →OCLC, page 179
3. A blowpipe used by a pewterer.
   The pewterers employ a very peculiar modification of the blowpipe, which may be called the hot-air blast, and the names for which apparatus are no less peculiar; a fig. 313, being called the hod, and b, the gentleman. The first is a common cast-iron pot with a close cover, containing ignited charcoal; two nozzles lead into and from it, to allow the passage of a stream of air, through the pipe c, from bellows worked by the foot. 1843, Charles Holtzapffel, “Soldering”, in Turning and Mechanical Manipulation. Intended as a Work of General Reference and Practical Instruction, on the Lathe, and the Various Mechanical Pursuits Followed by Amateurs, volumes I (Materials;[…]), London: […] Holtzapffel & Co.,[…], →OCLC, pages 449–450
4. (horse racing) A bookmaker's bag.
   'Clerking' is perhaps the most difficult and most admired job on a racecourse. The next time you see a bookmaker at his hod, waving his ticket-filled hands, shouting the odds, look to his left, just back a bit—out of the limelight. The bloke sitting there with his head buried deep in a ledger is the clerk. 2006, Tommy Steele, chapter 6, in Bermondsey Boy: Memories of a Forgotten World, large print edition, Bath, Somerset: Windsor Paragon; BBC Audiobooks, published 2007, page 64
5. (originally Britain, dialectal and US) A receptacle for carrying coal, particularly one shaped like a bucket which is designed for loading coal or coke through the door of a firebox.
   Coordinate term: scuttle
   My friend comes home and finds his dressing-gown and slippers in front of the fire. He is tired and cross, and doesn't want to sling ashes nor bang a coal-hod. But the sight of the fire makes him feel better at once, and if there be no fire, there are no ashes. 1884, John McGovern, “Wedded Life”, in The Golden Censer: Or, The Duties of To-day, the Hopes of the Future, Chicago, Ill., Columbus, Oh.: Union Publishing House, →OCLC, page 266
   The household uses of copper are principally for cooking utensils and a variety of miscellaneous items, such as urns, bowls, hods, lamps, candlesticks, vases, book ends, and ash trays. 1938, Raymond B[artlett] Stevens et al., “Copper Utensils and Hollow or Flat Plate”, in Trade Agreement between the United States and the United Kingdom: Digests of Trade Data with Respect to Products on which Concessions Were Granted by the United States, volume IV, Washington, D.C.: United States Tariff Commission, →OCLC, page 3-42