dodder

name

1. A river in Dublin, Ireland, a tributary of the Liffey.

noun

Etymology: From Middle English doder (“flax dodder”), from Middle Dutch doder, from Old Dutch *doder, ultimately from Proto-West Germanic *dodr (viz. theories of origin). Cognate with Middle Low German doder, West Flemish dodder.

1. Any of about 100–170 species of yellow, orange or red (rarely green) parasitic plants of the genus Cuscuta. Formerly treated as the only genus in the family Cuscutaceae, it is now placed in the morning glory family, Convolvulaceae.

verb

Etymology: From Middle English daderen (“to quake, tremble”). Compare Norwegian dudra (“to tremble”).

1. To shake or tremble as one moves, especially as of old age or childhood; to totter.

   “Yossarian responded to the thought by slipping away stealthily from the police and almost tripped over the feet of a burly woman of forty hastening across the intersection guiltily, darting furtive, vindictive glances behind her toward a woman of eighty with thick, bandaged ankles doddering after her in a losing pursuit.”

   “Their neighbours have been, on one side, an old man who dodders around in his dressing gown talking to himself, and on the other a stand-offish couple who pretend not to understand the Spanish he speaks.”