rood

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.

• IPA^(key): /ɹuːd/

  • Audio (UK)

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• Rhymes: -uːd
• Homophone: rude

rood (plural roods)

1. (archaic) A crucifix, cross, especially in a church.
   • 1577, Raphaell Holinshed, “[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 55195564, pages 77–78, column 2:

     The Citizens in their rage, imagining that euery poſt in the Churche had bin one of y^e 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.

   • 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 606515358, [Act III, scene iv]:

     Have you forgot me? No, by the rood, not so.

   • 1842, Alfred Tennyson, “The Day-Dream. The Revival.”, in Poems. […], volume II, London: Edward Moxon, […], OCLC 1008064829, page 157:

     By holy rood, a royal beard! / How say you? we have slept, my lords. / My beard has grown into my lap.

2. A measure of land area, equal to a quarter of an acre.
   • 1855, Robert Browning, “‘Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came.’”, in Men and Women […], volume I, London: Chapman and Hall, […], OCLC 1561924, stanza XXV:

     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.

   • 1938, Xavier Herbert, Capricornia, Chapter V, p. 58,

     […] a bumptious fool whose god was property, not property in vast estates such as a true man might worship, but in paltry roods.

   • 1956, Anthony Burgess, Time for a Tiger (The Malayan Trilogy), published 1972, page 195:

     Perhaps, however, he could ensure against being completely alone by cultivating the few roods of garden wished upon him.

3. (Chester, historical) An area of sixty-four square yards.
4. (UK, dialectal, obsolete) A measure of five and a half yards in length.
   • 1667, John Milton, “Book I”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […], OCLC 228722708; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, OCLC 230729554:

     Thus Satan […] his other parts besides / Prone on the flood, extended long and large, / Lay floating many a rood […]

• (quarter of an acre): farthingdale, day's work, daywork, farthing, ferling, farthingdeal, farthingdole, farundel, yard, rod, (Scottish) Scottish rood, (Israeli) dunam

• (quarter of an acre): See acre

• (quarter of an acre): lug, perch, (now chiefly Scottish) fall (all ¹⁄₄₀ rood)

• by the rood
• rood beam
• Rood End
• rood loft
• rood screen

• door, odor, ordo

rood

1. Alternative form of roud (“red”)

From Middle Dutch rôot, from Old Dutch rōt, from Proto-West Germanic *raud, from Proto-Germanic *raudaz, from Proto-Indo-European *h₁rowdʰós, from the root *h₁rewdʰ-.

• IPA^(key): /roːt/

• audio

  (file)

• Hyphenation: rood
• Rhymes: -oːt
• Homophone: Rooth

rood (comparative roder, superlative roodst)

1. red

   Veel dakpannen zijn rood - A lot of roof tiles are red

2. (politics) left, socialist, labor

• Afrikaans: rooi
• Jersey Dutch: rôi
• Negerhollands: rooi, ro, roo, rood
• Skepi Creole Dutch: aro

• door, oord

From Old Frisian rād, from Proto-West Germanic *raud. Cognates include West Frisian read and German Rot.

• IPA^(key): /roːd/
• Hyphenation: rood
• Rhymes: -oːd

rood (inflected rode, comparative roder, superlative roodst)

1. red

• Marron C. Fort (2015), “rood”, in Saterfriesisches Wörterbuch mit einer phonologischen und grammatischen Übersicht, Buske, →ISBN

rood (nominative plural roods)

1. category