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soddy

soddy

1 9.9
A house that early settlers build from blocks of earth with grass roots
  • noun
  • /ˈsɑːdi/
  • Archaic
translation icon : casa de tierra
  • I thought it was the loveliest sight I have seen since arriving here, and my heart was filled with the beauty of the evening and the comfort of our little soddy in the moonlight with my husband, baby, and me safely inside.

Examples

  • Leta and her two sisters moved into a soddy with their grandparents and began attending school in a one-room log schoolhouse.

    Academic text (1990)
  • What are the advantages and disadvantages of living in a "soddy"?

    Academic text (1994)
  • Can you imagine living in a soddy?

    Blog text (34)
  • We got food down at the soddy, if you care to partake.

  • It is a soddy, but has two stories with six glass windows - one that opens; quite a mansion for Colorado Territory!

    Fiction book (1997)
  • He set up a meeting for Howard and me with some of the key men over at Krist Toresen's soddy.

  • He said the Indians had come upon the Himmel farm, where Mr. Himmel had hidden his wife in a hole in the soddy floor, covering it with a rug.

    Fiction book (1997)
  • His horse raced for the soddy, a building made of earth or sod, standing all alone on the barren prairie.

  • Few soddies are left on the prairie today.

  • I thought it was the loveliest sight I have seen since arriving here, and my heart was filled with the beauty of the evening and the comfort of our little soddy in the moonlight with my husband, baby, and me safely inside.

Synonyms

adobe house
vssoddy
1 3.8

A house made from sun-dried earth and straw bricks

covers building from earth blocks with grass roots and Great Plains use
sod house
vssoddy
  • Archaic
1 8.4

A house made from blocks of earth and grass cut from the ground

is the Great Plains settler term rather than the general building name
jacal
vssoddy
  • US
9.9

A small hut made of mud and sticks that people use for shelter in the southwestern United States and Mexico

refers to larger settler homes on the Great Plains rather than small southwestern huts

Surface Forms

soddy singular
soddies plural

Morphology

soddy = sod (transparent) = sod + y

The meaning is directly derived from 'sod' + the noun-forming suffix '-y': a structure made of sod.

Etymology

Soddy comes from sod, which means 'grass and earth' or 'turf' and was the material settlers used to build houses on the prairie. So a soddy is a house made from blocks of sod, which kept people warm in harsh weather.