Tudor & Stuart · insult · noun
Clotpole
KLOT-pole /ˈklɒtˌpəʊl/pronunciation reconstructed — no period source gives it
First recorded1601
A thickhead or blockhead: literally a head ('poll') made of a clod of earth. Shakespeare also uses 'clotpoll' simply for a head.
Where it was first recorded
Shakespeare, Twelfth Night (1601), in an older 'clod-' spelling, per the first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary; the 'clot-' spelling itself is first recorded in Troilus and Cressida (dated 1606 by the OED; the play was written c. 1602)
Also spelled: clotpoll, clodpoll, clodpole, cloddipole
In its own time
I will see you hanged, like clotpoles, ere I come any more to your tents: I will keep where there is wit stirring and leave the faction of fools.
Today
Modern exampleSome clotpole has scheduled the meeting for midnight on a Sunday.
Fine to use as a mild, Shakespearean put-down.
Questions
What does clotpole mean?
A thickhead or blockhead: literally a head ('poll') made of a clod of earth. Shakespeare also uses 'clotpoll' simply for a head.
When was clotpole first used?
It is first recorded 1601 — Shakespeare, Twelfth Night (1601), in an older 'clod-' spelling, per the first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary; the 'clot-' spelling itself is first recorded in Troilus and Cressida (dated 1606 by the OED; the play was written c. 1602).
Can you still use clotpole today?
Fine to use as a mild, Shakespearean put-down.
Sources
- Clod-poll, clod-pole — Murray's New English Dictionary (OED1), via WEHD
- clodpoll — Merriam-Webster
- clodpoll — Dictionary.com (Random House Unabridged)
- clodpoll, n. — Green's Dictionary of Slang (Jonathon Green)
- Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue (1811 ed.) — Francis Grose (Project Gutenberg #5402)
- clotpole — Wiktionary
- Troilus and Cressida — The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (MIT)
Checked 2026-09-30 · verdict: attested — found in the dictionaries and texts listed above