Etymology: Origin uncertain. The early history suggests a relationship with rood n. (see discussion below), but it is difficult to explain how a variant or by-form of that word with a short vowel could have arisen. Alternatively, perhaps compare Old Icelandic rudda club, Norwegian regional rudda , rydda large pliant twig or stick used as a whip, rodda horizontal bar used to hang things on, and (with added suffix) Swedish regional (eastern) ruddil young tree, of uncertain origin (in spite of the superficial semantic and formal resemblance to the cognates of rood n., perhaps ultimately < the same Germanic base as rid v.).The word shows formal and semantic overlap with rood n.: both words are attested in Old English in the sense ‘stick or rod of wood’; in later use, spellings indicating a long vowel are occasionally attested for senses of the present word, and, conversely, some senses of rood n. are occasionally attested with short-vowel spellings. Such apparent confusion of form is especially frequent at sense 8b, which overlaps with rood n. 7a. In sense 2b after the post-classical Latin sense ‘scion, descendant’ of classical Latin virga rod (see virga n.), which is used by many patristic writers with reference to the Virgin Mary and (less often) to Jesus, especially in virga a radice Iesse , virga de radice Iesse , virga ex radice Iesse ‘rod from the root of Jesse’, all in allusion to Isaiah 11:1: et egredietur virga de radice Iesse, et flos de radice eius ascendet ‘and there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots’. Although the passage in Isaiah prophesies the Davidic descent of the Messiah (and hence, in Christian interpretation, of Jesus), the application of the term to the Virgin Mary is traditional, based on the tradition that she, like Jesus, was of Davidic descent, and probably also influenced by association of virga virga n. with virgin- , virgo maiden, virgin (see virgin n.), this connection being made by many patristic writers. The term virga Iesse ‘rod of Jesse’ is much rarer in patristic writers (Tertullian, Jerome), and it is often difficult to determine whether it refers to Jesus or to his mother. With the specific bacteriological use in sense 12 compare bacillus n. In sense 13 after Danish †staavene (plural noun), literally ‘rods’ (apparently 1842 in A. Hannover Mikroskopiske undersøgelser af nervesystemet, the source reviewed in quot. 1844). With sense 15 compare earlier hot rod n. 2. It is unclear whether in Old English the word is strong masculine (rodd) or (like the Scandinavian nouns cited above) weak feminine (rodde). If membership of the weak declension is assumed, the word is perhaps attested earlier in the place name Roddanbeorg, Gloucestershire (first half of the 11th cent. in copies of documents of the late 9th cent. or earlier; now Rodborough), although the first element may alternatively represent an otherwise unattested personal name; compare likewise the following:c1250 ( Bounds (Sawyer 609) in W. de G. Birch Cartularium Saxonicum (1893) III. 140 Ærest on roddan pol nioþeweardne, & of roddan pole on þane langan hlinc.

Etymology: Origin uncertain. Perhaps related to road n., although the nature of any relationship is unclear: see detailed discussion at that entry. Compare roddin n. N.E.D. (1909) conjectures that the word may have arisen by metanalysis of an unattested compound such as *fōttrod (ostensibly < foot n. + trod n.), which it postulates on the basis of Older Scots fute rode, fute rod, fit rod ‘footpath’ (a1560); however, this seems less likely than that fute rode simply shows a compound of the present word.

Etymology: < rod n.¹