| 释义 |
rodham E. Anglia.|ˈrɒdəm|
Also rodden, roddon.
[Of obscure formation (see note below).]
A raised bank in the Fen district of East Anglia, consisting of the bed and levees of a dry river-course which have been raised above the level of the adjacent land by deposition of silt, usu. by the incoming tide, and by compaction and lowering of the adjacent peat soil; occas. used to signify only a levee bounding such a river-course.
The spelling roddon was adopted and popularized by G. Fowler (see quot. 1932), whilst the older form in -(h)am remains dominant in local use. Any connection with roddin (cf. E.D.D. and rod n.2) is unlikely.
[1857T. Wright Dict. Obsolete & Provincial Engl. II. 806 Roddam, a bed of sand resting on the clay beneath the peat, in the fens of Cambridgeshire.] 1932G. Fowler in Geogr. Jrnl. LXXIX. 210 There are numerous raised banks of laminated silt or shell maul meandering through the Fens. Neither historians nor geologists appear to have noticed them... Fen dwellers however have noted these banks but generally without realizing their origin. They call them roddons. This word appears to be allied to roddin or rodden, which Wright in his ‘English Dialect Dictionary’..gives as meaning a narrow road, path or sheep track. I spell the word roddon as it sounds; and I prefer it as a spelling to rodham, as used in the name Rodham Farm, as the latter appears corrupted in the second syllable. 1945B. E. Dorman Story of Ely i. 3 These raised river beds are known as roddens... One fine example..can be seen..alongside..the road from Littleport to Shippea Hill. The few houses along this road are nearly all built on the rodden, for it provides a firmer foundation than peat. 1957A. K. Astbury Black Fens v. 26 Levees formed as parallel ridges one on either side of the main channel... Where subsequent cultivation has been long and constant the two levees may tend to merge into one general bank of silt... But all such levees, whether separate or merged, are in the black fens known as rodhams. Ibid. 27 Fowler..used the form roddon—influenced by the fact that in the north of England the word roddin or rodden means a narrow road... But although later writers have adopted Fowler's spelling, the fact remains that fenmen themselves call these things rodhams. 1957G. E. Hutchinson Treat. Limnol. I. i. 119 The tidal water from this shallow arm of the sea, the southward continuation of the modern Wash, was evidently very turbid and deposited levees at the sides of the channels, known as roddons, along which it ran. 1963E. S. Wood Collins Field Guide Archaeol. ii. 199 Silt Banks, otherwise known as roddons, or rodhams, are caused by tidal action depositing silt up slow rivers. 1971Norfolk Fair Feb. 36/3 Old extinct watercourses can be traced by the rodhams of silt and the slades of chalky material. 1974J. R. Ravensdale Liable to Floods i. 21 Gordon Fowler..noticed a roddon in the north-east corner of Cottenham parish. |