fodder

Reading level: hard

Estimated CEFR level: C2 — Proficiency

Estimated from word frequency; not an official CEFR classification.

Definition

  1. noun soldiers who are regarded as expendable in the face of artillery fire
  2. noun coarse food (especially for livestock) composed of entire plants or the leaves and stalks of a cereal crop
  3. verb give fodder (to domesticated animals)

Etymology

From Middle English fodder, foder, from Old English fōdor (“feed; fodder”), from Proto-West Germanic *fōdr, from Proto-Germanic *fōdrą, from *fōdô (“food”), from Proto-Indo-European *peh₂- (“to guard, graze, feed”). Compare Saterland Frisian Fodder, West Frisian foer, Dutch voer (“pasture; fodder”), German Futter (“fodder; feed”), Danish foder, Swedish foder. More at food.

In classic literature

Synonyms

cannon fodder, fresh fish

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