Make Your Point > Archived Issues > FODDER
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pronounce
FODDER:
Say it "FOD ur."
It rhymes with "otter."
To hear it, click here.
connect this word to others:
Y'all, we can't talk about fodder (cheap, plentiful food) without mentioning that hilarious literal fodder for single men: Futurama's Bachelor Chow. Now with flavor!

It doesn't look too palatable, does it?
While we're talking about food that's unappetizing, let's recall a word that literally means "food" but these days usually means "stuff that entertains you or teaches you in an unexciting or unoriginal way, as if it's feeding you a soft, mushy, practically pre-digested meal." The word is p_b_l_m.
(To reveal any word with blanks, give it a click.)
definition:
The word "fodder" comes from Old English, just like the word "food" does.
If we're being literal, "fodder" is the kind of cheap food we give to animals like cows and horses. Fodder isn't stuff we'd want to eat ourselves: it's hay, straw, parts of the corn plant that we wouldn't want, etc.
Here's a photo (from Amy Hogue with Small Farm Canada) of some animals eating fodder:

If we're being figurative, "fodder" is any raw material that gets used for some specific purpose. In other words, to call something fodder is to say that it's abundant stuff that we easily use to accomplish our own aims.
grammatical bits:
Part of speech:
Noun, the uncountable kind: "He enjoys people-watching, using what he sees as fodder for his short stories." "Celebrities' lives are used as fodder in trashy magazines."
Other forms:
It's rare, but you can use "fodder" as a verb: "fodder your cattle," "fodder your spirit," "fodder your intellect with a difficult novel," etc. The related forms are "foddered," "foddering," and "fodderer(s)."
how to use it:
Usually we say that something is fodder for something or someone: celebrities' outrageous purchases are fodder for bloggers; the president's comments provide fodder for these journalists; the daily news is fodder for our dinner conversation; the movie we watched in class doubles as fodder for a group discussion; the cheesy music and campy special effects in movies serve as fodder for jokes on Mystery Science Theater 3000.
And often we talk about people using something as fodder. "He uses his friends' crazy quirks as fodder for his comedy routines."
Sometimes, when you call something fodder, you're hinting that it's so abundant or so low-quality that it has almost no value: "His bumbling, illogical way of speaking provides endless fodder for late-night hosts."
But "fodder" can also have a neutral or a positive tone: "Her grace and beauty at every age have always been fodder for the paparazzi."
You might also add a descriptive term and talk about political fodder, tabloid fodder, editorial fodder, conversational fodder, podcast fodder, and so on.
And if you refer to things or people as cannon fodder, you mean that they're raw material to be "fed" to a metaphorical cannon: that is, to be nixed, beaten, sacrificed, or disregarded.
examples:
"She moved to New York to pursue a career in comedy, using some of her tour-guide experience as fodder."
— Thomas Heath, Washington Post, 28 December 2018
"Compared to possessions, experiences provide fodder for our conversations, thereby enhancing memory and facilitating social interaction."
— Amit Kumar, Jesse Walker, and Thomas Gilovich, Scientific American, 5 December 2016
has this page helped you understand "fodder"?
study it:
Explain the meaning of "fodder" without saying "grist," "stuff to be used," or "material to be worked with."
try it out:
In The Verge, Chaim Gartenberg describes a new video game, Middle-Earth: Shadow of War, which is set in the world of J.R.R. Tolkien's novels.
"Tolkien’s larger universe of books and movies," Gartenberg says, is serving well "as fodder for a video game."
Following his example, talk about another historical or fictional world that serves well as fodder for other creations.
For instance, you might talk about how the Bible serves as fodder for endless short stories or novels; or how the world of Marvel Comics serves as fodder for so many movies; or how the world of Shakespeare, Greek mythology, or the Brothers Grimm serve as fodder for television episodes. Here's David W. Stowe talking about how Psalm 137 from the Bible has served as fodder for musicians, abolitionists, and advocates of social reform.
before you review, play:
Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out.
Our game this month is Everyday Etymologies!
If you're in the habit of looking up the etymologies of everyday words (wait, you aren't?), then you find, occasionally, certain ones that strike you as particularly apt, cute, strange, or poetic. I'd like to share some of those finds with you this month. In each issue, I'll give you the etymology of an everyday word, and you supply the word. We'll start easy and move into some tougher ones as the month goes on, but every answer will be an everyday kind of word, one you've been familiar with since, say, adolescence at least. To see the answer, scroll to the bottom of the issue.
Try this one today: This three-syllable noun traces back to the Greek theasthai, "to behold."
review this word:
1. A near opposite of FODDER is
A. DELICACIES.
B. CRUDENESS.
C. SUBSISTENCE.
2. She's got plenty of ideas for projects--in fact, her _____ is overflowing with fodder. It's just that she lacks the time to work on them.
A. well
B. trough
C. playing field
a final word:
I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love.
I'm Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words.
From my blog:
36 ways to study words.
Why we forget words, & how to remember them.
How to use sophisticated words without being awkward.
To be a sponsor and include your ad in an issue, please contact me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.
Disclaimer: When I write definitions, I use plain language and stick to the words' common, useful applications. If you're interested in authoritative and multiple definitions of words, I encourage you to check a dictionary. Also, because I'm American, I stick to American English when I share words' meanings, usage, and pronunciations; these elements sometimes vary across world Englishes.
Say it "FOD ur."
Y'all, we can't talk about fodder (cheap, plentiful food) without mentioning that hilarious literal fodder for single men: Futurama's Bachelor Chow. Now with flavor!
The word "fodder" comes from Old English, just like the word "food" does.
Part of speech:
Usually we say that something is fodder for something or someone: celebrities' outrageous purchases are fodder for bloggers; the president's comments provide fodder for these journalists; the daily news is fodder for our dinner conversation; the movie we watched in class doubles as fodder for a group discussion; the cheesy music and campy special effects in movies serve as fodder for jokes on Mystery Science Theater 3000.
"She moved to New York to pursue a career in comedy, using some of her tour-guide experience as fodder."
Explain the meaning of "fodder" without saying "grist," "stuff to be used," or "material to be worked with."
In The Verge, Chaim Gartenberg describes a new video game, Middle-Earth: Shadow of War, which is set in the world of J.R.R. Tolkien's novels.
Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out.
1. A near opposite of FODDER is
|