root, n. = "forceful kick"

[Douglas G. Wilson]

>OED has this British term at _root_, n.1, def. 17, but expresses
>uncertainty about its etymological connection.  The primary ex.,
>from 1900, looks like real but indirect evidence of its usage. A
>more idiomatic ex., a few years earlier than the OED's next, is as follows:
>
>   1930 C. R. Benstead _Retreat_ (N.Y.: Century Co.) 94 [ref. to
> 1918]: Proper root in the tail he'd get. That 'ud larn 'im.

I have only a poor-man's OED, and I can't find the entry.

This looks similar to "rout" /rut/ = "blow"/"stroke", shown in SND
from 1728 to 1893: e.g. (1806) <<Sae wi' my stick I gae'r a rout.>>
In my OED as "rout" sb.3.

-- Doug Wilson


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