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Today we're checking out fodder, a word we looked at last year within the more specific phrase "cannon fodder."
Can you define that phrase? Try to explain what this means: "The homecoming game will be brutal; that other team is just cannon fodder."
make your point with...
"FODDER"
"Fodder" literally means "food," especially the very cheap stuff you feed to farm animals.
Abstractly, fodder is stuff we easily use to accomplish our own aims. In other words, fodder is raw material that gets used for some specific purpose.
Pronunciation:
FOD ur
(rhymes with "otter")
Part of speech:
Uncountable noun.
(Like "milk," "rice," and "education," uncountable nouns are words for stuff that can’t be broken into exact units. You talk about "some milk," "the rice," and "a lot of education," but you don’t say "a milk," "three rices," or "many educations."
Likewise, talk about "the fodder," "this fodder," "his fodder," "his fodder for the project," "such fodder," "no fodder," and so on,
but don’t say "a fodder," "one fodder," or "fodders.")
Other forms:
It's rare, but you can use "fodder" as a verb: fodder your cattle, fodder yourself, fodder your soul or your spirit, fodder your intellect with a difficult novel, etc.
How to use it:
Sometimes, when you call something fodder, you're hinting that it's so abundant or so low-quality that has almost no value: "His bumbling, illogical way of speaking provides endless fodder for late-night hosts." (In fact--sorry for this mental image--"fodder" has even described documents and literature that are useful only as toilet paper.)
But that's not always the case; "fodder" can have a neutral or positive tone, too: "Her grace and beauty at every age have always been fodder for the papparazzi."
Often we'll say that something is fodder for something or someone: celebrities' outrageous purchases are fodder for bloggers; the president's comments provide fodder for these journalists; the daily news is often fodder for our dinner conversation; the movie we watched in class doubles as fodder for a group discussion.
You might also talk about election fodder, campaign ad fodder, political fodder, tabloid fodder, opinion pages fodder, podcast fodder, and of course, cannon fodder (raw material to be nixed, beaten, or disregarded).
examples:
Regarding the book Women Who Work, the kindest thing I've seen a reviewer say so far is that it does provide some inspirational fodder.
Because I'm a writing tutor, I love to collect short, well-written articles as fodder for lessons.
study it now:
Look away from the screen to explain the definition in your own words. You’ll know you understand what "fodder" means when you can explain it without saying "grist" or "stuff we use as means to our ends."
try it out:
Fill in the blanks: "I've used (some information or material) as fodder for how I (accomplish something)."
Example: "I've used her Pinterest boards as fodder for how I organize my drawers and cabinets."
before you review:
Spend at least 20 seconds occupying your mind with the game below. Then try the review questions. Don’t go straight to the review now—let your working memory empty out first.
Our game this month is called "Cousins or Strangers?"
Consider two pairs of similar-looking words, and figure out which pair are truly related, like cousins, and which pair are unrelated, like strangers. "Related," of course, is a relative concept (ha ha). We're interested in closeness: "compute" and "computer" are sisters, or variations of the same word; "vision" and "video" are cousins, sharing the same Latin root; but "compute" and "video" are strangers.
From our previous issue:
Pair A: DISTINGUISH and EXTINGUISH. These are the cousins. Both came from the Latin stinguere, meaning "to prick." The idea is that, etymologically speaking, when you distinguish things, you poke them apart; when you extinguish things, you poke them out.
Pair B: REVAMP and VAMPIRE. I wondered about these--when you revamp something, are you essentially sucking out its essence and then reviving it as a whole different creature? Nope, these are the strangers. A vamp is the upper part of a shoe; originally, to revamp a shoe was to give it a new vamp. That "vamp" comes from the Old French avant, "in front," plus pié, "foot." But the word "vampire" has a long, complex history that traces through French, German, Hungarian, and Slavonic--and that history has nothing to do with vamps on shoes.
Ready to check out two more pairs? Remember, one pair will be cousins; the other, strangers. Which is which?
Pair A: ANTLERS and ANTENNAE
Pair B: EVENT and EVENTUALLY
review today's word:
1. The closest opposite of FODDER is
A. SUBSISTENCE
B. CRUDENESS
C. DELICACIES
2. His bizarre interviews keep piling up, fodder for his critics who just can't stay away from the _____.
A. well
B. trough
C. playing field
Answers are below.
a final word:
To be a sponsor and include your ad in an issue, please contact Liesl at Liesl@HiloTutor.com
Disclaimer: Word meanings presented here are expressed in plain language and are limited to common, useful applications only. Readers interested in authoritative and multiple definitions of words are encouraged to check a dictionary. Likewise, word meanings, usage, and pronunciations are limited to American English; these elements may vary across world Englishes.
Answers to review questions:
1. C
2. B
Today we're checking out fodder, a word we looked at last year within the more specific phrase "cannon fodder."
"FODDER" "Fodder" literally means "food," especially the very cheap stuff you feed to farm animals. Part of speech:
Regarding the book Women Who Work, the kindest thing I've seen a reviewer say so far is that it does provide some inspirational fodder.
Look away from the screen to explain the definition in your own words. You’ll know you understand what "fodder" means when you can explain it without saying "grist" or "stuff we use as means to our ends."
Fill in the blanks: "I've used (some information or material) as fodder for how I (accomplish something)."
Spend at least 20 seconds occupying your mind with the game below. Then try the review questions. Don’t go straight to the review now—let your working memory empty out first.
1. The closest opposite of FODDER is
To be a sponsor and include your ad in an issue, please contact Liesl at Liesl@HiloTutor.com
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