doddard

== English == === Etymology 1 === Possibly from dodder (“to shake or tremble as one moves, especially as of old age”) +‎ -ard. The Scottish National Dictionary, a Scots dictionary, defining doddard as “A foolish old man, a dotard”, and providing an 1823 quotation, gives the etymology as either a variant of dotard, comparing Early Modern English dodart, or perhaps related to doddered, with spelling influenced by dotard. ==== Noun ==== doddard (plural doddards) A frail old man. ==== See also ==== dotard === Etymology 2 === Apparently from dod (“to poll (trees)”) +‎ -ard; the formation being parallel to pollard: cf. doddle, dodderel in same sense. But it may have been merely a modification of dotard (found earlier in same sense) with fanciful assimilation to dod and its derivatives. See doddered. ==== Noun ==== doddard (plural doddards) (rare) A moribund or decayed tree. === References ===