Clodhoppers.
Don't we have some great sounding words in English.
Imagine the perplexity of a ELL coming across this word.
While they might sort out the hop how would they know what a clod might be.
Clod. As in a clod of earth. A great wet cohesive lump of mud.
Clodhoppers. Heavy pair of boots. We wore ammunition boots. they were large, very heavy, steel capped and reinforced. Just in case we dropped a full shell casing on our foot. We called them clodhoppers. How on earth did we get this bit of imagery, jumping over the furroughs in a ploughed field, into our military slang.
Did clodhoppers in fact come from clog. The wooden shoe.
Thinking Box.
Hopper. How did an action, hop, also a plant used in making beer, hops, evolve into a word for a large container for flour, grain and also hops? Is there a clue there?
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