1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Pad

PAD. (1) Probably from the same root as “pod,” the husk or seed-covering in certain plants, a term used in various connexions, the sense being derived from that of a soft cushion, or cushion-like combination used either for protective purposes or as stuffing or stiffening. In zoology, it is particularly used of the fleshy elastic protuberances on the sole of the foot of many animals such as the cat and dog, the camel, &c.; and of the similar cushion beneath the toes of a bird’s foot or of the tarsal cushion of an insect. In sporting phraseology the whole paw of a fox or other beast of chase is called the “pad.” A special technical use, somewhat difficult to connect with the above meanings, is for the socket of a brace or for the handle of such tools as a keyhole saw. (2) The canting word “pad,” now surviving in such words as “footpad,” a highway robber, or “pad horse,” a roadster riding-horse with an easy action, is the same as “path,” adapted directly from the Low Ger. form pad, a track or road. (3) There is an old English dialect word for a frog (Scottish and North) or a toad, more familiar in the diminutive “paddock” (cf. Hamlet, iii. 4, 189; Macbeth, i. 1, 9). This is found in many Teutonic languages, cf. Dan. padde, Du. pad, &c. The diminutive is to be distinguished from “paddock,” a small enclosed plot of pasture land, an altered form of “parrock,” O. Eng. pearroc. (See Park.)