In spite of the most active search, during the last century, no information respecting the dodo was obtained, and some authors have gone so far as to pretend that it never existed;[…]
1839, Charles Darwin, chapter IX, in The Voyage of the Beagle:
Within a very few years after these islands shall have become regularly settled, in all probability this fox will be classed with the dodo, as an animal which has perished from the face of the earth.
2017 May 3, Mark Carnall, “Finding zombies, ghosts and Elvis in the fossil record”, in The Guardian:
Wildlife biologist Stanley Temple hypothesised that perhaps the dodo tree was dependent on its seeds passing through the digestive system of dodos in order to properly germinate and that the handful of individuals in the 1970s were the last remaining trees from seeds that passed through a dodo in the 1690s-1700s when they went extinct.
(figuratively) A person or organisation which is very old or has very old-fashioned views or is not willing to change and adapt.
2012, Arv Olson, Backspin: 120 Years of Golf in British Columbia, page 253:
"Most of the aces weren't on holes I would have liked to have made them on," confessed Colk, who dropped his fifth dodo of 1935 on December 29, which was believed at the time to be a record for most aces in a year.
Dodo is everybody's favorite! It is a superb snack, a side dish, a breakfast food or a dessert all rolled into one. The best dodo is made from soft (almost over ripe) plantain which is cut in 1/2 inch thick diagonal slices and fried to a crispy golden brown.
2015, Chigozie Obioma, The Fishermen: A Novel:
Mother had banned it a year or so earlier after Obembe and I stole pieces from Mother's cooler, and lied that we'd seen rats eating the dodos.
2018, Remmi Smith, The Healthy Teen Cookbook: Around the World In 80 Fantastic Recipes:
One popular Nigerian dish is fried plantain, which is called “dodo.”
Alberto Rodriguez, Nalúa Rosa Silva Monterrey, Hernán Castellanos, et al., editors (2012), “dodo”, in Ye’kwana-Sanema Nüchü’tammeküdü Medewadinña Tüwötö’se’totojo (overall work in Ye'kwana and Spanish), Forest Peoples Programme, →ISBN, pages 120, 126
Ye’kwana nonoodö: yawaadeejudinnha wenhä = Território Ye’kwana: a vida em Auaris (overall work in Ye'kwana and Portuguese), São Paulo: ISA – Instituto Socioambiental, 2017, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 91: “dodo”
Hall, Katherine Lee (1988) The morphosyntax of discourse in De'kwana Carib, volumes I and II, Saint Louis, Missouri: PhD Thesis, Washington University, page 388: “dodo - parrot (>Sp)”
Hall, Katherine (2007) “dodo”, in Mary Ritchie Key & Bernard Comrie, editors, The Intercontinental Dictionary Series, Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, published 2021
1997, Sachnine Michika, “dòdò”, in Dictionnaire usuel yorùbá-français suivi d'un index français-yorùbá (overall work in French), Ibadan, Nigeria: Éditions Karthala and IFRA-Ibadan, →ISBN, page 220:
Àwọn Yorùbá kì í wọ aṣọ tó bá rẹ̀ dòdò.
The Yoruba do not wear bright red clothes.
2008 December 19, Yiwola Awoyale, “dòdò”, in Global Yoruba Lexical Database v. 1.0, number LDC2008L03, Philadelphia: Linguistic Data Consortium, →DOI, →ISBN:
Ó rẹ̀ dòdò bí òòrùn alẹ́.
It turned deep red like the late evening sun.
2008 December 19, Yiwola Awoyale, “dòdò”, in Global Yoruba Lexical Database v. 1.0, number LDC2008L03, Philadelphia: Linguistic Data Consortium, →DOI, →ISBN:
Ó já sí pápá, ó rẹ̀ dòdò, ó so igba àdó mọ́rí.
It bursts into the open field, it comes out in deep red, it ties two hundred tiny gourds on its head (riddle = imí/ìgbẹ́ (feces))
2008 December 19, Yiwola Awoyale, quoting A. Babalola, “dòdò”, in Orin Ọdẹ fún Àṣeyẹ, number LDC2008L03, 1973, Ibadan: Macmillan Nigeria Publishers Ltd., page 26, quoted in Global Yoruba Lexical Database v. 1.0, Philadelphia: Linguistic Data Consortium, →DOI, →ISBN:
Ìlẹ̀pa dòdò kì í jẹ́ kí òkú bẹ̀nìyàn wò.
The deep red laterite from fresh grave does not allow the dead to come and visit his relations.
2009, “Gẹnẹsisi 49”, in Bíbélì Mímọ́ Yorùbá Òde Òn, Biblica, Inc:
12: Ojú rẹ̀ yóò rẹ̀ dòdò ju wáìnì lọ.
12: His eyes will become redder than wine.
Derived terms
arẹ̀dòdò(“one that is deeply red; deeply red”)
dòdòòdò(“of an object being very deeply or richly red”)
rẹ̀ dòdò(“to be a deep red, (of a sauce) to look appetizing”)
2008 December 19, Yiwola Awoyale, quoting I. O. Delano, “dodò”, in Orin Ọdẹ fún Àṣeyẹ, number LDC2008L03, 1966, Ibadan: University Press Limited, page 24, quoted in Global Yoruba Lexical Database v. 1.0, Philadelphia: Linguistic Data Consortium, →DOI, →ISBN:
Just as it is the trickles of dew that become a stream, and it is the falling of heavy dews that form rains, so for seven siblings to refuse their dinner would provoke a fight between adults (proverb on the danger of minor events).
Alternative forms
d'odò(standard orthography when odò has a qualifier)
2008 December 19, Yiwola Awoyale, “dódò”, in Global Yoruba Lexical Database v. 1.0, number LDC2008L03, Philadelphia: Linguistic Data Consortium, →DOI, →ISBN:
Mo dódò mo kàndí/tìró, mi ò rọ́lọ́kọ̀ tí yóò tù mí gàlé, omi ńlá ti gbé ẹja lọ!
I got to the river and stood back; I did not find a canoe man to pilot me across; the bigger river has swept off the fish!
Alternative forms
d'ódò(standard orthography when odò has a qualifier)