Fodder

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /ˈfɒdə/

Definitions

1. Food or other consumable material provided to livestock and other domesticated animals for sustenance
2. Plant material such as hay or silage that is given to farm animals for nourishment ; a supply of raw material or ideas used for a particular purpose
3. Vegetation fed to domestic animals to sustain them ; any resource used to support or fuel an activity or process

Etymology: Fodder is a close relative of "food" that split off from it over many centuries. Both descend from the same Germanic root, and Old English had a word "fōdor" meaning feed or fodder, closely tied to "fōda" (food). The two words diverged in use: "food" came to mean whatever people eat, while the older "fodder" narrowed to the feed given to animals such as cattle and horses. The root goes back further still to a prehistoric ancestor meaning roughly "to guard, graze, feed," which is why the same idea of nourishment runs through the Germanic languages today. German "Futter" and Dutch "voer" both carry the sense of animal feed or pasture, a reminder that the word once described livestock nourishment across the whole family of languages.

Synonyms: feed, forage