Stodgy is from 'stodge' (a thick, filling food; of uncertain, probably imitative origin) plus the adjectival suffix '-y'. Morphologically, the word preserves a built structure whose named elements carry the historical sense into English. The wording preserves that uncertainty: the older history is best read as a cautious account rather than a fully settled chain. The sound-symbolic element is central: the form imitates or evokes the noise, motion, or sensory impression associated with the modern word. In current use it covers dull and old-fashioned, or heavy and indigestible (of food). The wider family includes derived forms such as stodgily and stodginess and related words such as stodge.