Sod

How to spell sod

3 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce sod

What does sod mean?

1. nounA piece of grass-covered surface soil held together by matted roots, often cut and lifted as turf.

Sod in a sentence

• The landscaper rolled out fresh sod across the bare patch of lawn.

• They cleared the old sod before laying the new patio stones.

Where does sod come from?

Language of origin: Dutch

The everyday meaning of sod, a slab of earth held together by grass roots, comes from the Middle Dutch and Middle Low German word 'sode', which named exactly that: a cut piece of turf. English absorbed it in the fifteenth century, most likely through contact with Low Country traders and turf-cutters, and it has stayed close to its original sense ever since, describing the surface layer of soil and grass that gardeners lift and lay. The familiar phrase 'under the sod', meaning buried in the ground, leans on that same earthy image. The quite separate British slang sense, an unpleasant or unlucky person, has a blunter history: it is a shortening of 'sodomite', recorded from the early nineteenth century, which over time softened into a mild general term of abuse or rueful sympathy. Because the word is so short and phonetically regular, its spelling rarely troubles anyone; the only real care is keeping the single 'd' and not adding a stray letter.

How the word is built

• sod (single root; no prefix or suffix)