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doddard

noun

Etymology

Possibly from dodder (“to shake or tremble as one moves, especially as of old age”) + -ard. The Scottish National Dictionary, a Scots dictionary, defining doddard as “A foolish old man, a dotard”, and providing an 1823 quotation, gives the etymology as either a variant of dotard, comparing Early Modern English dodart, or perhaps related to doddered, with spelling influenced by dotard.

  1. derived from *dodr✻
  2. derived from *doder✻
  3. derived from doder
  4. inherited from doder — “flax dodder”
  5. suffixed as doddard — “dodder + ard”

Definitions

  1. A frail old man.

    • You are too old and too exacting to be satisfied with a blank page. You would certainly prefer one upon which life has written something. It is more interesting. Young girls are only for youths and for certain brainless doddards.
    • President Roosevelt and the former King Edward collect stamps, along with thousands of others, ranging from six-year-olds to ninety-seven year old^([sic]) doddards.
    • Nelly. There are some people who enjoy Sunday. / Renny. Yes . . . the old doddards who listen to military bands in the public park.

  2. A moribund or decayed tree.

    • […] / Another ſhakes the Bed; diſſolving there, / Till knots upon his Gouty Joints appear, / And Chalk is in his crippled Fingers found; / Rots like a Doddard Oke, and piecemeal falls to the ground.
    • Trees when lopped were dodded and became doddards.

The neighborhood

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sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA