Cladde

Part of speech: verb, adjective

Definitions

1. An archaic past tense of the verb meaning to dress someone or cover something with clothing or a layer
2. Old past form of clothe, describing a person who was dressed or a surface that was covered over
3. A obsolete spelling of the past tense of clothe, used in older English to mean having been dressed

Etymology: "Cladde" is the past tense and past participle of "clothe" in Middle English, and it is the older form that English later lost. Its ancestry goes back to Old English "clāþian", meaning to clothe, from the noun "clāþ", cloth or garment, which is the same root that gave modern "cloth" and "clothes". The verb "clothe" was often used in Old English as a verb of dressing, and it was not until the Middle English period that the past tense began to shift toward the "-ed" ending we use now. "Cladde" survived into the late Middle English texts, and the form "clad" took over as the standard participle, which is why "clad" is still used today in phrases like "clad in armour" while "clothed" became the everyday verb.