Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A crucifix symbolizing the cross on which Jesus was crucified.
- n. A large, usually wooden crucifix surmounting the rood screen or rood beam of a medieval church.
- n. Chiefly British A measure of length that varies from 5 1/2 to 8 yards (5.0 to 7.3 meters).
- n. A measure of land equal to 1/4 acre, or 40 square rods (0.10 hectare).
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A rod. See rod, 1.
- n. A cross or crucifix; especially, a large crucifix placed at the entrance to the choir in medieval churches, often supported on the rood-beam or rood-screen. Usually, after the fifteenth century, images of the Virgin Mary and St. John were placed the one on the one side and the other on the other side of the image of Christ, in allusion to John xix. 26. See cut under
rood-loft . - n. A name of various measures. A measure of 5½ yards in length; a rod, pole, or perch; also, locally, a measure of 6, 7, or 8 yards, especially for hedging and ditching.
- n. A square pole, or 30¼ square yards, used in estimating masons' work; also, locally, a measure of 36, 42¼, 44, 49, or 64 square yards.
- n. A cubic measure for masons' work of 64, 72, etc., cubic yards.
- n. Same as Holy-cross day (which see, under day).
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A representation in sculpture or in painting of the cross with Christ hanging on it.
- n. Prov. Eng. A measure of five and a half yards in length; a rod; a perch; a pole.
- n. The fourth part of an acre, or forty square rods.
WordNet 3.0
- n. representation of the cross on which Jesus died
Etymologies
- From Middle English 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, *rōdōn (“rod, pole”), from Proto-Indo-European *rōt-, *rāt- (“bar, beam, stem”). Cognate with German Rute ("rod, cane, pole"), Norwegian roda ("rod"). Largely displaced by cross. More at rod. (Wiktionary)
- Middle English, from Old English rōd. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“It was a lofty stone wall, against which stood the altar of the holy cross, or rood-altar, as it was more commonly called, and upon it was a gallery called the rood-loft, from its containing the great rood and its attendant images.”
“The daily parish Mass said at the altar on or under the rood-screen, was called the rood Mass, though occasionally this term is used to signify merely the Mass of one or other of the feasts of the Holy Cross.”
“In England, also, the rood frequently stood not on or near the screen and loft, but on a separate transverse beam called the rood-beam, which was similarly carved and gilded.”
“In smaller churches, with no separate pulpitum, but only a rood-screen with a central doorway, there was usually an altar on either side of the door, but it is doubtful whether these can strictly be termed rood-altars.”
“A rood is a piece of land one rod wide and forty rods long, that is, the fourth of an acre.”
An Introduction to the Industrial and Social History of England
“` ` We shall see that, '' said Front-de-Buf; ` ` for by the blessed rood, which is the abomination of thy accursed tribe, thou shalt feel the extremities of fire and steel!”
“A special altar, called the rood-altar, used to stand under the screen.”
“The red men fought for the Paradise -- fought till it was drenched with blood, but no tribe, without mortal challenge from another straightway, could ever call a rood its own.”
“By the rood was a common oath; so by the holy rood, as in Shakespeare, Rich.”
“The same feeling led to a custom of framing, between the nave and choir of churches, what was called a rood-screen or rood-loft, presenting centrally a large crucifix, with images of the Holy Virgin and St. John on each side.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘rood’.
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Old words
Old words: modern English words that are old according to criteria that are still vague: Either words common to several old languages or words substantially similar in old English. Please add to or...
mother, father, bark, spit, old, fire, this, that, black, thou, to give, hand and 259 more...
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Anglish
Words that can replace Latinates.
frosent, gainsay, fremd, inrush, frain, huru, wordbook, wordstock, byspel, elfshine, infaru, glam and 98 more...
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Postscripture ✞
Terms associated with the Christianity, The Bible, etc. I have a related, but more narrow list called Imbible Code.
A related list is Words Associated With Jesus.apostole, pharaoh, sodom, babel, sabbath, baptize, cherub, elohim, lapsarian, crucifixion, nephilim, hosanna and 195 more...
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phrontistery-r
from phrontistery.info
raad, rabanna, rabbet, rabble, Rabelaisian, rabic, racemation, raceme, racemiferous, rach, rachidian, rachiometer and 514 more...
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Tristram Shandy
souse, meet, sententious, propound, boot, casuistry, avoirdupois, akimbo, disport, lenity, succussation, sweetbread and 197 more...
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Logolepsy
"Luciferous Logolepsy is a collection of over 9,000 obscure English words. Though the definition of an 'English' word might seem to be straightforward, it is not. There exist so many adopted, deriv...
Anschauung, Areopagus, Argus, Briarean, Dei gratia, Dei judicium, Deo volente, Duecento, Foehn, Geflugelte Worte, Gegenschein, Hakenkreuz and 9230 more...
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ro- ro- ro- your boat
For words beginning with ro-.
rorid, roral, roscid, roblet, rogalian, rogitate, roomthily, roadster, roband, robinet, roborant, roborate and 35 more...
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spires
arcospire, inspire, squinch, perspire, spirea, aspire, suspire, transpire, leptospire, crocket, whorl, helicoid and 10 more...
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Anglo-Saxon/Old English
Anglo-Saxon rootwords
mote, huru, byspel, elfshine, infaru, snotor, dern, upspring, meed, lof, queem, hof and 83 more...
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English Weights and Measures
Most of these are names of weights and measures in use before 1500, gleaned from household accounts of English estates and colleges.
pondus, clove, wey, charrus, pisa, sum, seam, petra, fatt, peck, quarter, skep and 49 more...
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Words from Moby Dick
frigate, presumptuous, genteel, succor, hearthstone, gentry, factitious, bilious, insurgent, portent, enervate, genuflect and 303 more...
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wreckingball's Words
reprehensible, problematize, crepuscular, deleterious, pestilent, strumpet, draggletail, interrobang, meretricious, systematize, schadenfreude, capricious and 443 more...
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ulyssean
... as in "by James Joyce"
stately, plump, aloft, gurgling, untonsured, chrysostomos, jowl, parapet, jesuit, indigestion, scutter, noserag and 688 more...
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miltonic
liberty, froth-becurlèd, host, huge-bellied, aghast, rills, gladsom, wrathfull, ordain, thunder-clasping, ruddy, warble and 264 more...
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Moby-Dick
Interesting words and usages.
hypo, spile, hunks, grapnel, squitchy, skrimshander, monkey jacket, direful, grego, wrapall, dreadnaught, bosky and 158 more...
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DYSLEXIC'S DREAD
Words That Make Sense in Reverse Too! Bad news for a dyslexic, 'cause s/he's got no clue if s/he read the word correctly or not, as opposed to a palindrome (i.e., no mistake possible, cf. "Dyslexic...
tool, lever, nap, pool, leer, leek, desserts, strop, doom, ukiah, yaws, ward and 213 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for rood.
yarb The vast white headless phantom floats further and further from the ship, and every rod that it so floats, what seem square roods of sharks and cubic roods of fowls, augment the murderous din.
- Melville, Moby-Dick, ch. 69 Jul 25, 2008
oroboros Door in reverse. Nov 2, 2007