prod

See also: Prod and Prod.

English

Etymology 1

From Middle English brodden, from Old Norse broddr (“shaft, spike”), from Proto-Germanic *bruzdaz. Cognate with Icelandic broddur, Danish brod.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /pɹɒd/
• (US) IPA^(key): /pɹɑd/
• Rhymes: -ɒd

Verb

prod (third-person singular simple present prods, present participle prodding, simple past and past participle prodded)

1. (transitive) To poke, to push, to touch.
2. (transitive) To encourage, to prompt.
   • 2012 January 1, Michael Riordan, “Tackling Infinity”, in American Scientist‎^[1], volume 100, number 1, page 86:

     Some of the most beautiful and thus appealing physical theories, including quantum electrodynamics and quantum gravity, have been dogged for decades by infinities that erupt when theorists try to prod their calculations into new domains. Getting rid of these nagging infinities has probably occupied far more effort than was spent in originating the theories.

Translations

poke

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 刺 (zh) (cì), 戳 (zh) (chuō), 捅 (zh) (tǒng)

• Dutch: duwen (nl), porren (nl)
• Esperanto: palpi
• French: pousser (fr), tâter (fr)
• German: stoßen (de)
• Greek: σκουντώ (el) (skountó)
• Italian: pungolare (it), spronare (it)

• Japanese: 突く (ja) (つく, tsuku), 突き刺す (つきさす, tsukisasu)
• Latin: pungo
• Norwegian: stikke (no)
• Portuguese: cutucar (pt)
• Russian: ты́кать (ru) (týkatʹ), коло́ть (ru) (kolótʹ), толка́ть (ru) (tolkátʹ) (push)
• Scottish Gaelic: stob
• Swedish: sticka (sv)

encourage

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 促使 (zh) (cùshǐ), 激勵 (zh), 激励 (zh) (jīlì)

• Dutch: aanmoedigen (nl)
• French: encourager (fr)
• German: anspornen (de), ermutigen (de)

• Italian: incoraggiare (it), stimolare (it)
• Portuguese: aguilhoar (pt)
• Russian: побужда́ть (ru) (pobuždátʹ), подгоня́ть (ru) (podgonjátʹ), подстрека́ть (ru) (podstrekátʹ) (esp. to evil or wickedness)
• Spanish: aguijar (es)

Noun

prod (plural prods)

1. A device (now often electrical) used to goad livestock into moving.
2. A prick or stab with such a pointed instrument.
3. A poke.

   "It's your turn," she reminded me, giving me a prod on the shoulder.

4. A light kind of crossbow; a prodd.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Fairholt to this entry?)

Derived terms

• cattle prod

Translations

device used to goad livestock into moving

• Finnish: piiska (fi); sähköpiiska (electric)
• Italian: picca (it) f

• Spanish: aguijada (es) f, picana (es) f, garrocha (es) f
• Swedish: elfösare c (electric), fösare c (as suffix: -fösare, prefixed with determiner; of vb. fösa, "to drive")

Further reading

• Cattle prod on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Etymology 2

Shortened from production

Noun

prod (plural prods)

1. (computing, programming) production

Anagrams

• dorp, drop