Other forms: prodding, prodded, prods
To prod is to poke somebody to get their attention. One finger, in the arm or the ribs.
The physical sense is short and slightly rude, and cattle are moved with a prod, which is the stick as well as the action. The figurative use is the commoner one in offices: prodding somebody about a deadline means chasing them, gently but not that gently. As a noun a prod is either the poke or the reminder, so needing a prod means needing to be nudged into doing something. Nudge is the polite version and shove is the impolite one.
Alteration of earlier brod (perhaps through influence of poke; compare prog), from Middle English brodden (“to goad, incite, urge; to sprout”), from brod (“goad, nail; shoot, sprout”), from Old Norse broddr (“shaft, spike, thorn”), from Proto-Germanic bruzdaz. Cognate with Icelandic broddur, Danish brod. a doublet of brad. Or, from or influenced by.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA