TRANSITIVE
VERB:
Inflected forms: redd·ed or redd, redd·ing, redds
Chiefly Pennsylvania To clear: redd the dinner table.
PHRASAL VERB:
redd up To tidy: redded up the front room.
ETYMOLOGY:
Middle English dialectal redden, to clear an area (influenced by Middle English
redden, to rescue, free from), from Old Norse rydhja. See rid.
REGIONAL NOTE:
The terms redd and redd up came to the American Midlands from the many
Scottish immigrants who settled there. Meaning “to clear an area or to make it
tidy,” redd is still used in Scotland and Northern Ireland; in the United States it
is especially common in Pennsylvania as the phrasal verb redd up. The term,
which goes back to Old Norse rydhja, can be traced from the 15th century to
the present, particularly in dialects of Scotland and the North of England.
