ruddock
English
Alternative forms
Etymology
From Middle English ruddocke, ruddok, roddok, from Old English rudduc, ruduc (“robin, ruddock”, literally “little red one, red-ling”), equivalent to rud (“redness”) + -ock (diminutive suffix). The Welsh rhuddog, and Cornish rudhek (“the redbreast”) are probably from the English, although a derivation from a British Celtic *roudācos (< *roudos "red") for all three cannot be ruled out. More at rud.
Noun
ruddock (plural ruddocks)
- The European robin.
- Chaucer
- The tame ruddock and the coward kite.
- Chaucer
- (obsolete) A piece of gold money (probably because the gold of coins was often reddened by copper alloy).
- Florio
- Great pieces of gold […] red ruddocks.
- Florio
- A variety of red apple.
Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “ruddock”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms inherited from Old English
- English terms derived from Old English
- English terms suffixed with -ock
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- English terms with obsolete senses
- en:Apple cultivars
- en:Money
- en:Muscicapids