# Dodman

> Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Dodman
> Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Dodman.md
> Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dodman
> Source revision: 1309652287
> License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/)

{{short description|Snail}}
{{Other uses}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{more citations needed|date=October 2021}}
A '''dodman''' (plural "'''dodmen'''") or a '''hoddyman dod''' is a local English [vernacular](/source/vernacular) word for a [land snail](/source/land_snail). The word is used in some of the [counties](/source/Counties_of_the_United_Kingdom) of England. This word is found in the [Norfolk dialect](/source/Norfolk_dialect), according to the [Oxford English Dictionary](/source/Oxford_English_Dictionary). Fairfax, in his ''Bulk and Selvedge'' (1674), speaks of "a snayl or dodman".

'''Hodimadod''' is a similar word for snail that is more commonly used in the [Buckinghamshire](/source/Buckinghamshire) [dialect](/source/dialect).<ref>{{cite web |url=http://met.open.ac.uk/genuki/big/eng/BKM/Vocabulary/vocabulary-H.html |title=H - Buckinghamshire Vocabulary |last=Cocks |first=Alfred Heneage |date=1897–1909 |publisher=Genuki|accessdate=2010-09-03 |url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20100707131830/http://met.open.ac.uk/genuki/big/eng/BKM/Vocabulary/vocabulary-H.html |archive-date=2010-07-07}}</ref>

Alternatively (and apparently now more commonly used in the Norfolk dialect) are the closely related words '''Dodderman '''or '''Doddiman'''. In everyday [folklore](/source/folklore), these words are popularly said to be derived from the surname of a travelling cloth seller called Dudman, who supposedly had a bent back and carried a large roll of cloth on his back. The words to dodder, doddery, doddering, meaning to progress in an unsteady manner, are popularly said to have the same derivation.

A traditional Norfolk rhyme goes as follows:
{{blockquote|"Doddiman, doddiman, put out your horn,
<p>Here comes a thief to steal your corn."<ref>{{cite book |title=Dictionary of Phrase and Fable |first=E. Cobham |last=Brewer |date=1894}}</ref></p>}}

[Alfred Watkins](/source/Alfred_Watkins), the 'inventor' of [ley lines](/source/ley_lines), thought that in the words "dodman" and the builder's "[hod](/source/brick_hod)" there was a survival of an ancient British term for a [surveyor](/source/surveying). Watkins felt that the name came about because the snail's two horns resembled a surveyor's two surveying rods. Watkins also supported this idea with an etymology from 'doddering along' and 'dodge' (akin, in his mind, to the series of actions a surveyor would carry out in moving his rod back and forth until it accurately lined up with another one as a backsight or foresight) and the Welsh verb 'dodi' meaning to lay or place. He thus decided that [The Long Man of Wilmington](/source/The_Long_Man_of_Wilmington) was an image of an ancient surveyor.<ref>{{cite web |title=leyhunter1 [placeholder title]<!--The title of the work is unknown. Please determine and replace if possible. (October 2021)--> |url=http://www.gothicimage.co.uk/books/leyhunter1.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070809012401/http://www.gothicimage.co.uk/books/leyhunter1.html |website=gothicimage.co.uk |url-status=dead |archive-date=9 August 2007<!--Actual archival date unknown. Please determine and replace if possible.-->}}</ref>

== References ==
{{reflist}}
{{Wiktionary}}

Category:Mollusc common names
Category:Pseudoarchaeology
Category:Surveying

{{England-hist-stub}}

---
Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Dodman](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dodman) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dodman?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.