stodge

/stɒd͡ʒ/

Etymology

Late 17th century, of "symbolic" origin, suggested by stuff and podge. Compare stog.

stodge means heavy, dull, often starchy food, such as a steamed pudding. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 87 out of 100.

Why this word is great

STODGE — [Noun/Verb] Dull, heavy, and often starchy food; by extension, anything tediously substantial or bland. As a verb, to stuff or cram, or to move with a sodden, laborious gait. Its late 17th-century genesis is of symbolic origin, a likely blend of ‘stuff’ (to fill) and ‘podge’ (a short, fat person or thing), kin to the verb ‘stog’ (to bog down). Unlike a “delicacy,” which implies a refined, airy pleasure, or a “trudge,” which suggests merely weary locomotion, *stodge* embodies an oppressive, glutinous substance, whether on the plate or in one’s step. It is the sodden weight of cold suet pudding, the claggy warmth of porridge clinging to the bowl, and the leaden prose of a bureaucratic memo. What merely fills us can also imprison us.

noun

Heavy, dull, often starchy food, such as a steamed pudding“The meal was nothing but heavy stodge with no fresh vegetables.”
Anything dull and bland.“Critics dismissed the book as academic stodge.”

verb

To stuff; to cram.