rood

From Middle English rode, rood (“cross, rood”), from Old English rōd (“a rod, pole, rood (land measure), plot of land of a square rod, a cross, rood (as in Holy-rood), gallows, a cross on which a person is executed, death on a cross, crucifix”), 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/

rood (plural roods)

1. (archaic) A crucifix, cross, especially in a church.
   • 1577, Raphaell Holinshed [i.e., Raphael Holinshed]; Richard Stanihurst, “[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. Conteyning, The Description and Chronicles of England, from the First Inhabiting unto the Conquest. The Description and Chronicles of Scotland, from the First Originall of the Scottes Nation, till the Yeare of Our Lorde. 1571. The Description and Chronicles of Yrelande, likewise from the First Originall of that Nation, untill the Yeare. 1547. Faithfully Gathered and Set Forth, volume I, London: Imprinted [by Henry Bynneman] for Iohn Harrison, OCLC 55195564, pages 77–78, column 2:

     The Citizens in their rage, imagining that euery poſt in the Churche had bin one of ye 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, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals):

     act III scene 4

     Have you forgot me?

     No, by the rood, not so.

2. A measure of land area, equal to a quarter of an acre.
   • 1855, Robert Browning, “Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came”, 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.

3. (Britain, dialectal, obsolete) A measure of five and a half yards in length.
   • c 1667, John Milton, s:Paradise Lost (1667), Book I.

     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)

• rood beam
• rood loft
• rood screen

• door, odor, ordo

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

• IPA^(key): /roːt/

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• Hyphenation: rood
• Rhymes: -oːt

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

• door, oord

rood (plural roods)

1. category