fodder

Meanings

1. Food for animals; that which is fed to cattle, horses, and sheep, such as hay, cornstalks, vegetables, etc.
2. A load: various English units of weight or volume based upon standardized cartloads of certain commodities, generally around 1000 kg.
3. Tracing paper.
4. Stuff; material; something that serves as inspiration or encouragement, especially for satire or humour.
5. The text to be operated on (anagrammed, etc.) within a clue.
6. People considered to have negligible value and easily available or expendable.

1. To feed animals (with fodder).

Etymology

From Middle English fodder, foder, from Old English fōdor (“feed; fodder”), from Proto-West Germanic *fōdr, from Proto-Germanic *fōdrą, from *fōdô (“food”), from Proto-Indo-European *peh₂- (“to guard, graze, feed”). Compare Saterland Frisian Fodder, West Frisian foer, Dutch voer (“pasture; fodder”), German Futter (“fodder; feed”), Danish foder, Swedish foder. More at food.