Etymology Dictionary

PADDOCK (1),  a toad.  (Scand.)   In Hamlet, iii. 4. 190; Macb. i. I. 9.   M. E. paddok. King Alisaunder, 6126.   Dimin. with suffix -ok or -ock (as in hill-ock, bull-ock), from M. E. padde, a toad, frog; in Wyclif, Exod. viii. 9 (later version), one MS. has the pl. paddis for paddokis, which is the common reading.—Icel. padda, a toad. + Swed. padda, a toad, frog. + Dan. padde. + Du. padde, pad.   β. As in many E. words beginning with p, an initial s has probably been lost.   The form padd-a denotes an agent; cf. A. S. hunt-a, a hunter.   The prob. sense is 'jerker,' i.e. the animal which moves by jerks; from Aryan ✔SPAD, to vibrate, jerk, &c.; cf. Gk. σφοδρός, vehement, active, σφενδόνη, a sling, Skt. spand, to vibrate, throb.   In accordance with this supposition, we actually find Skt. sparça-spanda, a frog.  ¶ The supposed A. S. pada (in Bosworth) is due to a mistake; the true E. words are toad and frog.   Der. paddock-stool, a toad-stool.

PADDOCK (2),  a small enclosure.  (E.)   'Delectable country-seats and villas environed with parks, paddocks, plantations,' &c.; Evelyn (Todd; no reference).   Here park and paddock are conjoined; and it is tolerably certain that paddock is a corruption of parrock, another form of park.   'Parrocke, a lytell parke,' Palsgrave; cited in Way's note to Prompt. Parv. p. 384.   He adds that 'a fenced enclosure of nine acres at Hawsted (Suffolk), in which deer were kept in pens for the course, was termed the Parrock;' Cullum's Hawsted, p. 210.   See also parrock in Jamieson, and parrick in Halliwell.   [The unusual change from r to d may have been due to some confusion with paddock, a toad, once a familiar word; cf. poddish for porridge.]—A. S. pearruc, pearroc, a small enclosure.   'On ðisum lytlum pearroce' = in this little enclosure; Ælfred, tr. of Boethius, c. xviii. § 2, b. ii. prosa 7.   Formed, with dimin. suffix -oc ( = mod. E. -ock, as in padd-ock (1), hill-ock, bull-ock), from sparran, to shut, enclose; so that an initial s has been lost.   We find 'gesparrado dure' = thy door being shut, Matt. vi. 6 (Lindisfarne MS.)   β. This loss of s is certified by the occurrence of M. E. parren (for sparren), to enclose, confine, bar in; Havelok, 2439; Ywain and Gawain, 3227, ed. Ritson; and see the curious quotation in Halliwell, s. v. parred, where the words parred and speride (sparred) are used convertibly.   Cf. G. sperren, to shut.   γ. The verb sparran is, literally, to fasten with a spar or bar, and is formed from the sb. spar; see Spar (1).   Doublet, park, q.v.