clod

Meaning

Noun

1. A lump of something, especially earth or clay.
2. The ground; the earth; a spot of earth or turf.
3. A stupid person; a dolt.
4. Part of a shoulder of beef, or of the neck piece near the shoulder.

Verb

1. To pelt with clods.
2. To throw violently; to hurl.
3. To collect into clods, or into a thick mass; to coagulate; to clot.

Pronounced as (IPA)

/klɒd/

Etymology

From Middle English clod, a late by-form of clot, from Old English clot, from Proto-West Germanic *klott (“mass, ball, clump”). Compare clot and cloud; cognate to kloot (“clod”).
Alternatively, Middle English clod may derive from Old English *clod (found in Old English clodhamer (“a kind of thrush”) and Clodhangra (a placename)), from Proto-West Germanic *kloddō (“lump, clod”), from *gel- (“to ball up, become lumpy”), related to West Frisian klodde (“clod, lump”), Dutch klodde (“lump, blob”).