Forms: 1 fód(d)or, fód(d)er, fóddur, 2 fodre, 3 south. vodder, 4 foddre, 4–7 foder, 5 foddur, south. voddur, fo(o)dyr, 6 footer, 6–8 fother, 3– fodder. [OE. fódor str. neut. = MDu. and Du. voeder, OHG. fuotar (MHG. vuoter, Ger. futter), ON. fóðr (Sw., Da. foder) :—OTeut. *fôðrom:—pre-Teut. *pāt-ró-m, f. root pāt- to feed: see FOOD.
The homophonous word in all Teut. langs., with the sense of ‘sheath, case,’ is distinct both in root and suffix, as it represents OAryan *pō-tróm.]
† 1. Food in general. Obs.
c. 1000. Canons Edgar, § 15, in Thorpe, Anc. Laws, II. 283. Gif … þam þe þæs beþurfe … fyr & foddor.
c. 1205. Lay., 27031.
| Heo weoren ifaren into þan londe, | |
| fodder to biwinnen. |
c. 1374. Chaucer, Boeth., IV. metr. vii. 115 (Camb. MS.). He, overcomer, as it is seyd, hath put an vnmeke lorde foddre to his crwel hors.
1634. J. Taylor (Water P.), Gt. Eater Kent, 12. Let any thing come in the shape of fodder, or eating-stuffe, it is welcome.
2. Food for cattle. Now in a more restricted sense: Dried food, as hay, straw, etc., for stall-feeding.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Gen. xlii. 27. Þa undyde hira an his sacc & wolde syllan his assan foddur.
c. 1100. Voc., in Wr.-Wülcker, 501. Sagina, fodre.
c. 1225. Ancr. R., 416. Þeonne mot heo þenchen of þe kues foddre.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 3317 (Cott.).
| Fodder and hai þou sal find bun | |
| Na roummer sted in al þe tun. |
c. 1386. Chaucer, Reeve’s Prol., 13.
| But ik am old, me list not pley for age; | |
| Gras-tyme is doon, my fodder is now forage. |
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 168/3. Foddur, bestys mete, or forage.
1562. Turner, Herbal, II. 74. Som nationes make fother for Cattel of Dates.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg, III. 329.
| The youthful Bull must wander in the Wood; | |
| Behind the Mountain, or beyond the Flood: | |
| Or, in the Stall at home his Fodder find; | |
| Far from the Charms of that alluring Kind. |
1765. T. Hutchinson, Hist. Mass., I. 206–7. The southern part of the colony in general, being of a light sandy soil, would have been incapable of supporting its inhabitants were it not for the large bodies of salt meadow, the hay of which serves for fodder for their cattle in the winter, and the dung from it, being an excellent manure, produces good crops of grain with little labor in the summer, light land being easily tilled.
1816. J. Smith, The Panorama of Science and Art, II. 634. Bean-straw makes good fodder, when cut to chaff.
1883. S. C. Hall, Retrospect, II. 323. There was fodder running to waste on the slopes of every mountain on which flocks might have fed luxuriously.
transf. 1890. A. J. Wauters, Stanley’s Emin Pasha Exped., ix. 167. Locomotives do not suffer from the climate; they require no veterinary skill, a native smith can suffice; meanwhile for fodder all they want is wood, of which the district of the Congo supplies ample store; and even this may be dispensed with when they are worked by electricity generated by the motive power of the cataracts.
† 3. Child, offspring. Obs. rare–1. Cf. FOOD sb. 6.
13[?]. K. Alis., 644.
| Kyng Phelip saide to the modur, | |
| ‘Thou hast born a sori foder! | |
| Gef he libbe, ryde, and go, | |
| Mony a mon he schal do wo!’ |
4. attrib. and Comb., as fodder grass, house, passage, plant; fodder-cheese (see quot. 1884); fodder-corn, a supply of fodder for the horses of a feudal lord, or an equivalent in money; also the right of exacting this.
1784. J. Twamley, Dairying, 25. And in many Dairys they make Cheese all the Year, as the quantity of Winter Cheese, and *Fodder Cheese sent to London Markets clearly shews.
1884. Chesh. Gloss., Fodder cheese, cheese made before the cows are turned out to grass. L. That is, when they are being foddered on hay.
1655. Dugdale, Monast. Angl., I. 297 a. Redditus qui dicuntur Hidagium & *Foddercorn.
1830. Lindley, Nat. Syst. Bot., 304. The best *fodder Grasses of Europe are usually dwarf species, or at least such as do not rise more than 3 or 4 feet above the ground, and of these the larger kinds are apt to become hard and wiry.
1807. P. Gass, Jrnl., 304. This lodge is built much after the form of the Virginia *fodder-houses; is about fifty yards long, and contains twenty families.
1883. Ogilvie, *Fodder passage, the passage in a cattle-shed along which the food is carried for cattle.
1894. Daily News, 25 June, 6/6. A new *fodder plant, known as the Siberian knot-grass.
