rood
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ɹuːd/
rhymes: -uːd
homophone: rude
Forms: form: roods
Etymology: From Middle English rode, rood (“cross”), from Old English rōd (“cross”), from Proto-Germanic *rōdō, *rōdǭ (“rod, pole”), from Proto-Indo-European *rōt-, *reh₁t- (“bar, beam, stem”).
Cognate with German Rute (“rod, cane, pole”), Norwegian roda (“rod”). Largely displaced by cross. More at rod.
Senses: examples: text: The Citizens in their rage, imagining that euery poſt in the Churche had bin one of yᵉ Souldyers, ſhot habbe or nabbe at randon^([sic – meaning random]) uppe to the Roode lofte, and to the Chancell, leauing ſome of theyr arrowes ſticking in the Images.
ref: 1577, Raphaell Holinshed; Richarde Stanyhurst [i.e., Richard Stanihurst], “[The Historie of Irelande […].] The Thirde Booke of the Historie of Ireland, Comprising the Raigne of Henry the Eyght: ….”, in The Firste Volume of the Chronicles of England, Scotlande, and Irelande […], volume I, London: […] [Henry Bynneman] for Iohn Hunne, →OCLC, pages 77–78, column 2:
text: Have you forgot me? No, by the rood, not so.
ref: c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iv]:
text: By holy rood, a royal beard! / How say you? we have slept, my lords. / My beard has grown into my lap.
ref: 1842, Alfred Tennyson, “The Day-Dream. The Revival.”, in Poems. […], volume II, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 157:
glosses: A crucifix, cross, especially in a church.
examples: text: Next a marsh, it would seem, and now mere earth / Desperate and done with; (so a fool finds mirth, / Makes a thing and then mars it, till his mood / Changes and off he goes!) within a rood— / Bog, clay and rubble, sand and stark black dearth.
ref: 1855, Robert Browning, “‘Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came.’”, in Men and Women […], volume I, London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC, stanza XXV:
text: […] a bumptious fool whose god was property, not property in vast estates such as a true man might worship, but in paltry roods.
ref: 1938, Xavier Herbert, chapter V, in Capricornia, page 58:
text: Perhaps, however, he could ensure against being completely alone by cultivating the few roods of garden wished upon him.
ref: 1956, Anthony Burgess, Time for a Tiger (The Malayan Trilogy), published 1972, page 195:
glosses: A measure of land area, equal to a quarter of an acre.
qualifier: Chester
glosses: An area of sixty-four square yards.
examples: text: Thus Satan […] his other parts besides / Prone on the flood, extended long and large, / Lay floating many a rood […]
ref: 1667, John Milton, “Book I”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:
glosses: A measure of five and a half yards in length.
examples: text: Nou goth sonne under wode,—
Me reweth, Marie, thi faire Rode.
Nou goth sonne under tre,—
ref: 13th century, Edmund of Abingdon (or Anonymous); reproduced in Carleton Fairchild Brown (ed.), English Lyrics of the XIIIth Century (1932), p. 1, from Bodl. MS. Arch. Selden 74, f.55v
roman: Me reweth, Marie, thi sone and the.
glosses: The human face.
Synonyms: sense: quarter of an acre
word: farthingdale
sense: quarter of an acre
word: day's work
sense: quarter of an acre
word: daywork
sense: quarter of an acre
word: farthing
sense: quarter of an acre
word: ferling
sense: quarter of an acre
word: farthingdeal
sense: quarter of an acre
word: farthingdole
sense: quarter of an acre
word: farundel
sense: quarter of an acre
word: yard
sense: quarter of an acre
word: rod
sense: quarter of an acre
word: Scottish rood
sense: quarter of an acre; Israeli
word: dunam
Hypernyms: sense: quarter of an acre
word: acre
Hyponyms: sense: quarter of an acre
word: lug
sense: quarter of an acre
word: perch
sense: quarter of an acre
alt: all 1⁄40 rood
word: fall
Derived terms: by the rood
holy rood
rood beam
Rood End
rood goose
rood-loft
rood screen
rood-steeple
rood-tree