Pud

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /pÊŠd/

Definitions

  1. a sweet and often creamy dessert that can refer informally to the buttocks and is also a term for a small, spoiled animal
  2. a creamy dessert typically enjoyed as a treat, the informal designation for the rear end, and a word for a young, pampered creature
  3. A dish usually made by boiling or steaming a mixture of ingredients until set ; a casual term used to refer to the backside of a person ; a word for a juvenile animal that is often treated with excessive care

Etymology: "Pud" is a clipped form of "pudding," so the short word is simply the long one with its tail cut off. The fuller word came into English from Old French "boudin," meaning a sausage, and the sausage sense survives in the older "black pudding." Clipping of this kind is common in British speech, where "pud" became the everyday name for the sweet course after a meal. The word's more doubtful ancestry is where it gets murky. One suggestion links it to a Scots word "pud," meaning a little fat man and used as a term of endearment, which would connect it to "podge." Another proposes a link to "pudendum," the Latin for something to be ashamed of, though that is a vulgar and unlikely source for a dessert. Neither theory is settled, and the clipped-from-pudding account remains the most secure explanation.

Synonyms: pudding, dessert