hodmandod

English

Etymology

Compare dodman.

Pronunciation

• Hyphenation: hod‧man‧dod

Noun

hodmandod (plural hodmandods)

1. (Essex, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire, dialectal) A snail.
   • 1653, The Loves of Hero and Leander: A Mock Poem, London, page 12:

     But more the pity of the Gods / Extended toward these Hodmandods[.]

   • 1670, Francis Lord Verulam, Viscount St. Alban [Francis Bacon], “Century VIII”, in Sylva Sylvarum, or, A Natural History, in Ten Centuries. Whereunto is Newly Added, the History Natural and Experimental of [Life] and Death, or of the Prolongation of Life. Published after the Authors Death. By William Rawley, Doctor in Divinity, One of His Majesties Chaplains. Whereunto is Added Articles of Inquiry, Touching Metals and Minerals. And the New Atlantis. As also the Life of the Right Honorable Francis Bacon, Never Added to this Book before. [...] With an Alphabetical Table of the Principal Things Contained in the Ten Centuries, 9th and last edition, London: Printed by J[ohn] R[edmayne] for William Lee, and are to be sold by George Sawbridg [et al.], →OCLC, page 154:

     The Creatures that caſt their Skin are, the Snake, the Viper, the Grashopper, the Lizard, the Silk-worm, &c. Thoſe that caſt their Shell are, the Lobſter, the Crab, the Cra-fish, the Hodmandod or Dodman, the Tortoise, &c. The old Skins are found, but the old Shells never: So as it is like they ſcale off, and crumble away by degrees.

2. ' Recorded at the Essex sites of Little Baddow and Little Bentley in the Atlas Linguarum Europae.
3. ' Used in the name of a Suffolk food-retail company: Hodmedod's.
4. (Norfolk, dialectal, obsolete) A hedgehog.

Alternative forms

• hodmadod, hodmedod, hodneydod

Synonyms

• dodman (Norfolk, dialectal)

References

• “hodmandod”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.