Etymology

fodder

fod·der
F4O1D2D2E1R1

Today it means: Food for animals; that which is fed to cattle, horses, and sheep, such as hay, cornstalks, vegetables, etc. Full definition →

Middle English fodder ← Old English fōdor ← Proto-West Germanic *fōdr
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European · derived from*peh₂-“to guard, graze, feed”
  2. Proto-Germanic · inherited from*fōdrą
  3. Proto-West Germanic · inherited from*fōdr
  4. Old English · inherited fromfōdor“feed; fodder”
  5. Middle English · inherited fromfodder
  6. English todayfodder

From Middle English fodder, foder, from Old English fōdor (“feed; fodder”), from Proto-West Germanic *fōdr, from Proto-Germanic *fōdrą, from *fōdô (“food”), from Proto-Indo-European *peh₂- (“to guard, graze, feed”). Compare Saterland Frisian Fodder, West Frisian foer, Dutch voer (“pasture; fodder”), German Futter (“fodder; feed”), Danish foder, Swedish foder. More at food.

Words from the same roots

Old Englishfōdor all →

Furness

Proto-Germanic*fōdrą all →

forageforayfoederfother

Proto-Indo-European*peh₂- all →

foodfeedpanicpamphletforagerepastpasdaranpastille

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.