The termAtlantic cod is now used where it is desired to distinguish the other members ofGadus or theGadidae. Similar qualifiers are used to distinguish the other members, as well as the not closely related fish in the term's other senses. The plural formcod has become more common than the formcods.
And he wolde fayne have filled his bely with thecoddes, that the swyne ate: and noo man gave hym.
1603, William Shakespeare,As You Like It:
and I remember the wooing of a peascod instead of her, from whom I tooke twocods, and giuing her them againe, said with weeping teares, weare these for my sake: wee that are true Louers, runne into strange capers; but as all is mortall in nature, so is all nature in loue, mortall in folly.
1.Colutæa vesicaria vulgaris sylvestris. Ordinary Bastard Sene with bladders. This greater Bastard Sene groweth in time to be a tree of a reasonable greatnesse, the stem or trunck being of the bignesse of a mans arme or greater, covered with a blackish greene ragged barke, the wood whereof is harder then of an Elder, but with a pith in the middle of the branches which are divided many wayes, having divers winged leaves composed of many small round pointed or rather flat pointed leaves, set at severall distances, and somewhat like unto Licoris, or the Hatchet fitch, among which come forth yellow flowers like unto Broome flowers and as large; after which come thinne swellingcods, like unto thinne transparent bladders; wherein are conteined blacke seede set upon a middle ribbe within the bladders, which being alittle crushed betweene the fingers, will give a cracke like a bladder full of winde: the roote groweth great and wooddy, branching forth divers wayes.
1707,J[ohn] Mortimer,The Whole Art of Husbandry; or, The Way of Managing and Improving of Land.[…], London:[…] J[ohn] H[umphreys] for H[enry] Mortlock[…], and J[onathan] Robinson[…],→OCLC:
As soon as it is arrived at the size and strength necessary for the beginning itscod, it makes its web; this is his first day's employment; on the second he forms hiscod, and covers himself almost over with silk; the third day he is quite hid; and the following days employs himself in thickening and strengthening hiscod; always working from one single end, which he never breaks himself; and which is so fine, and so long, that those who have nicely examin'd it affirm, that eachcod contains silk enough to reach the length of six English miles.
1750 December, “Account of the Manner of breeding Silk-worms, and procuring Silk”, inThe London Magazine, Or, Gentleman's Monthly Intelligencer:
In seven days, thecods being finished, they are gathered and laid inheaps till they have time to wind off the silk: But they first set apart thecods designed for propagation, upon a hurdle in a cool airy place.
1846, William Smellie,The Philosophy of Natural History, page163:
The whole moth kind, as well as the silkworm, immediately before their transformation into the chrysalis state, cover their bodies with acod or clew of silk , though the nature of the silk , and their mode of spinning, are very different.
1646, Sir Thomas Browne,Pseudodoxia Epidemica, III.4:
that which we callcastoreum[…] are not the same to be termed testicles or stones; for thesecods or follicles are found in both sexes, though somewhat more protuberant in the male.
1662, Leonard Mascall,The Government of Cattel. Divided Into Three Books, page241:
Then let the cutter take and hold the tip of hiscod in his left hand, and with a sharp knife cut the top thereof an inch long clean away.
1953, Francis Leary,The Swan and the Rose, page22:
I went on one knee and thrust up and into his cod.
2011, Ed Greenwood,Elminster's Daughter:
Starmara made a muffled sound that might have been a bleat of alarm or might have merely been an expression of disgust, but revealed to her from-the-floor gaze was a leathercod of weary age and condition, below a long, continuous coil of coarse rope that had been wound round and round the merchant's hips, adding noticeably to his impressive girth—which shrank rapidly as the merchant tugged, hauled on the rope, then began a ponderous imitation of a dancing-lass undulating on a pedestal at a revel, shedding coils around his feet with a clumsiness that made Surth sigh and Starmara suddenly want to laugh.
1823, John Galt,Ringan Gilhaize; or, The Covenanters, page295:
Provost Maccalzean, with the silver keys in his hand, and the eldest bailie with the crimson-velvetcod, whereon they were to be delivered to her Majesty, following as fast as any member of a city corporation could be reasonably be expected to do.
1889, Sir William Fraser,Memorials of the Earls of Haddington - Volume 2, page299:
Item , ane long velvetcod or cusheon ;
1915 [2025 October 28], Yorkshire Archæological Society, edited by John Lister,West Riding Sessions Records,fol. 148:
Elizabeth Pitt, wife of Thomas Pitt of Haldon, clothier, Elizabeth Clerke of the same, spinster, and Jane Topliffe, wife of James Topliffe of the same, laborer, for stealing there on 1st Nov., 1640, a petticoat (parvacidam) value 4s., two children's coats value 2s., a feather bedcod value 2s., the property of Richard Bradley.
Origin unknown. Attested in reference to a person (though not always a stupid or foolish person) from the end of the 17th century. TheOxford English Dictionary (1891) notes that a suggested link tocodger is unlikely, ascod appears much earlier.
“Illegitimi non carborundum” is a well-known example ofcod Latin.
Dalton categorises Muse's latest composition as “cod-classical bombast”.
2006 July, Kim Newman, “Ultraviolet”, inSight and Sound, volume16, page78:
[…] the director's vision has devolved fromcod Orwell to riffing off bad girl art comic books and generally feeble posing.
2007 August 23, “Viral and virtual: A plague in a computer game may have lessons for the real world”, inThe Economist:
READERS ofThe Economist may not necessarily be familiar with the “World of Warcraft”. For those who are not, it is acod-medieval online game in which goblins and trolls, warriors and wizards, and so on act out the fantasies of some 9m players who spend the rest of their lives in the alternative world of paper and pay-packets.
2021 February 5, Nicholas Barber, “The Great Dictator: The film that dared to laugh at Hitler”, inBBC[1]:
Hynkel's anti-Semitic rants (consisting ofcod-German punctuated by shouts of "Juden") are terrifying, but there is no conviction behind them, just a desperate need to distract the Tomainians from his economic failures.
2025 May 14, Nicholas Barber, “'A miserable, apocalyptic tract': Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning could be 'the feel-bad film of the summer”, inBBC[2]:
In place of snappy banter, there iscod philosophy about destiny and choice, and in place of Lalo Schifrin's adrenaline-pumping classic theme, there are orchestral minor chords on the soundtrack.
Sandy: Right, right, well I'll just open the wardrobe. Oh, here, look—his wardrobe. Ha! Julian: Ha! Oh what a naff lot! Sandy: It is a bitcod isn't it.
1997, James Gardiner,Who's a Pretty Boy Then?, page137:
Will you take a varder at the cartz on the feely-omi in the naf strides: the one with the bona blue ogles polarying the omi-palone with a vogue on and acod sheitel.
D. G. Lewis, N. Lewis, editors (2005–present), “cod”, inGweiadur: the Welsh–English Dictionary, Gwerin
R. J. Thomas, G. A. Bevan, P. J. Donovan, A. Hawke et al., editors (1950–present), “cod”, inGeiriadur Prifysgol Cymru Online (in Welsh), University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh & Celtic Studies
