sod

UK/sɒd/US/sɑd/

nounC12 meaningsVery rare — outside the 30,000 commonest English words, so you will meet it in writing rather than in speech — soda sits at #1,535leans spoken

Other forms: sods

Sod is a mildly rude British word for a person, and it can be fond or scornful depending entirely on the tone. Poor sod, lucky sod, stupid sod.

Its strength varies enormously with who is speaking and how, and among friends it is nearly affectionate. It also works as an exclamation and in sod it, meaning give up, and sod's law, which is the British name for the principle that whatever can go wrong will. There is a completely innocent older sense, since a sod is a square of cut turf.

Definitions of sod

1nounsodA person, used with either affection or contempt.C1
“The poor sod had been waiting two hours.”
informal in this meaning — an editor’s judgement
2nounturfA piece of turf cut from the ground.C2
“They laid the sods over the bare patch.”

Where it comes from

Middle Low German
sôde
Middle Dutch
zoden — turf
Middle English
sod
English, today
sod

Built from

soede · Middle Low German — turf

From Middle English sod, sodde mid-15th century, from Middle Dutch zoden (“turf”) or Middle Low German sôde, soede (“turf”), both related to Dutch zode (“turf”), German Sode (“turf”), Old Frisian sātha (“sod”), all being of uncertain ultimate origin.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

← Vocabulary

sod