clodpole

English

Alternative forms

• clodpoll, clotpoll

Etymology

clod +‎ pole (“head”)

Noun

clodpole (plural clodpoles)

1. (derogatory) A stupid person; blockhead.
   • c. 1601–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Twelfe Night, or What You Will”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):

     […] this letter, being so excellently ignorant, will breed no terror in the youth: he will find it comes from a clodpole.

   • 1843 April, Thomas Carlyle, “VI, ’’The Landed’’”, in Past and Present, American edition, Boston, Mass.: Charles C[offin] Little and James Brown, published 1843, →OCLC, book IV (Horoscope):

     ‘Show the dullest clodpole,’ says my invaluable German friend, ‘show the haughtiest feather-head, that a soul higher than himself is here; were his knees stiffened into brass, he must down and worship.’

   • 1859, George Meredith, chapter 9, in The Ordeal of Richard Feverel. A History of Father and Son. […], volumes (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Chapman and Hall, →OCLC:

     There lay Tom; hobnail Tom! a bacon-munching, reckless, beer-swilling animal! and yet a man; a dear brave human heart notwithstanding; capable of devotion and unselfishness. The boy's better spirit was touched, and it kindled his imagination to realize the abject figure of poor clodpole Tom, and surround it with a halo of mournful light.

Derived terms

• clodpolish

 

See also

• tadpole

Anagrams

• colloped