Hello, you have come here looking for the meaning of the word
hoddydoddy. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
hoddydoddy, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
hoddydoddy in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
hoddydoddy you have here. The definition of the word
hoddydoddy will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition of
hoddydoddy, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.
English
Etymology
From hoddy-dod, an obsolete English regionalism meaning “periwinkle” or “snail”. Compare dodman.
Noun
hoddydoddy (plural hoddydoddies)
- (obsolete) An awkward or foolish person.
1598, Ben Jonson, Every Man in His Humour, act IV, scene viii:Well, good wife bawd, Cob’s wife, and you / That make your husband such a hoddy-doddy ; / And you, young apple-squire, and old cuckold-maker
1600, William Kempe, Kemps nine daies vvonder:Name my accuſer ſaith he, or I defye thee Kemp at the quart ſtaffe. I told him, & all his anger turned to laughter: ſwearing it did him good to haue ill words of a hoddy doddy, a habber de hoy, a chicken, a ſquib, a ſquall: […]
- (obsolete, England) A snail; a snail’s shell.
1899, W.T. Fernie, Animal Simples Approved for Modern Uses of Cure, page 448:A River snail in Oxfordshire is “Hoddy-doddy”; in Northamptonshire the Wall snail is “Packman snail.”
References
- “Hoddydoddy”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
- “hoddy-doddy”, in The Century Dictionary , New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
- James A. H. Murray et al., editors (1884–1928), “Hoddy-doddy”, in A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles (Oxford English Dictionary), London: Clarendon Press, →OCLC.