hod

Definition

To bob up and down on horseback, as an inexperienced rider may do; to jog.

Etymology

Borrowed from Scots hod (“to jog along on horseback”), probably related to hotch (“(verb) to move up and down jerkily, bob; to jog along on horseback; to hop like a frog; to fidget; to shrug; to heave with laughter; to cause to move jerkily; to shift in a sitting position to make room for others; to be overrun with; to swarm; (figuratively) to be angry; (noun) a jerk, jolt; a shrug; a fidget, twitch; a swarm of vermin; large, ungainly woman; untidy woman (figuratively) a hostile encounter, clash; state of disorder and filth, mess”) (whence English hotch (“to move irregularly up and down; to swarm”) (chiefly Scotland)), from Late Middle English hotchen (“to move jerkily, jolt; to attack (someone) (?)”), from Anglo-Norman hocher (“to shake (something) to and fro, jostle; to attack”) and Middle French hocher, Middle French, Old French hochier (“to shake (something) to and fro, jostle; to be unstable or wobbly, shake”) (modern French hocher (“to nod the head”)), from Frankish *hotsōn, *hottisōn, from *hottōn (“to shake; to toss”), perhaps ultimately from Proto-Germanic *hud- (“to shake”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ket- or *kwēt- (“to rock back and forth; to shake”), probably originally onomatopoeic. Compare Scots hotter (“(verb) to move in a jerky, uneven manner; to jolt; to shake; to walk unsteadily, totter; to shiver, shudder; to shake (with laughter); of liquid, etc.: to boil, bubble, seethe, sputter; to crowd, swarm; (noun) jolting or shaking; rattling sound; bubbling of boiling liquid; a shake, shiver; crowd, seething mass; motion or noise of such a crowd; jumbled heap”)). Cognates * Middle Dutch hutsen (modern Dutch hutsen (“to jog, jolt; to shake”)), Middle Dutch hotsen (modern Dutch hotsen, hossen (“to shake or swing to and fro; to run quickly”)) * German hotzen (“to shake or swing to and fro; to run quickly”) (Southern Germany) * Low German hūdern (“to shake; to shudder”) * Middle High German hozzen (“act of swinging someone to and fro to punish them (?)”) * Old English hūdenian (“to rock back and forth, shake, sway”)

Example Sentences

• "To have caught young wild ducks—a dozen— / So we "hodded" them in a hat to town, / To get them "pot-luck"—at least a "shake down," / With some tame, domestic cousin."
• "They hodded off the furniture, moth-eaten, cracked, and old, / For iron old the swords and helms and dish-covers they sold; […]"
• "Hoddin gray, a coarse grey woollen cloth, called "hoddin" from country people wearing it, who "hodded," that is, jogged along on carthorses."