doddered

English

Etymology 1

Apparently originally a derivative of dod (“to poll or take the top off (a tree)”). It is not clear whether it was a contaminated form of dodded (“polled”) or a mistaken spelling of doddard (“doddered oak” for “doddard oak”; cf. pollard willow), while the matter is complicated by the earlier use of dottard or dotard in the same sense. In later use there has been association with dodder (noun) and perhaps with dodder (verb) and its cognates.

Adjective

doddered (not comparable)

1. Of a tree, usually an oak: having lost the top or branches, especially through age and decay.
   • 1697, Virgil, translated by John Dryden, The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, page 41, lines 11–14:

     Your Country Friends were told another Tale; / That from the ſloaping Mountain to the Vale, / And dodder’d Oak, and all the Banks along, / Menalcas ſav’d his Fortune with a Song.

   • 1700, [John] Dryden, “Palamon and Arcite: Or, The Knight’s Tale. In Three Books.”, in Fables Ancient and Modern; […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, book III, page 82:

     This, once reſolv’d, the Peaſants were enjoin’d Sere Wood, and Firs, and dodder’d Oaks to find.

   • 1726, Homer, “Book XX”, in [Elijah Fenton], transl., The Odyssey of Homer. […], volume V, London: […] Bernard Lintot, →OCLC, page 25, lines 200–201:

     Some wield the ſounding ax; the dodder’d oaks / Divide, obedient to the forceful ſtrokes.

   • 1813, Walter Scott, “Canto Sixth”, in Rokeby; a Poem, Edinburgh: […] [F]or John Ballantyne and Co. […]; London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown; by James Ballantyne and Co., […], →OCLC, stanza III, page 275:

     […] / He passes now the doddered oak, / Ye heard the startled raven croak; […]

   • 1849, Hugh Miller, “Evidence of the Silurian Molluscs.—Of the Fossil Flora. Ancient Tree.”, in Foot-Prints of the Creator: or, The Asterolepis of Stromness, London: Johnstone and Hunter, […], →OCLC, page 202:

     And, where mighty rivers come rolling to the sea, we mark, through the long-retiring vistas which they open into the interior, the higher grounds of the country covered with coniferous trees, and see doddered trunks of vast size, like those of Granton and Craigleith, reclining under the banks in deep muddy reaches, with their decaying tops turned adown the current.

   • 1853 January, Currer Bell [pseudonym; Charlotte Brontë], “The Casket”, in Villette. […], volume I, London: Smith, Elder & Co., […], →OCLC, page 206:

     The turf was verdant, the gravelled walks were white; sun-bright nasturtiums clustered beautiful about the roots of the doddered orchard giants.

   • [1878], Frederick S[meeton] Williams, “A village inn.—The Erewash Valley.—[…]” (chapter I), in The Midland Railway: Its Rise and Progress. A Narrative of Modern Enterprise., London: Strahan & Co., […], →OCLC, page 2:

     From that hill-top could be seen the valley of the river Erewash, with its rich meadows and doddered willows by the water-courses, its grey uplands and scanty timber: […]

   • 1880, [Benjamin Disraeli], chapter XXXIV, in Endymion […], volume I, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., →OCLC, pages 313–314:

     The green glades in the autumnal woods were inviting, and sometimes they stood before the vast form of some doddered oak.

Etymology 2

From dodder +‎ -ed.

Verb

doddered

1. simple past and past participle of dodder