the road to rode

[fuddless]

what specifically is the meaning of "rode"?

Wikipedia gives me people places or companies but nothing referring to that stuff that follows an anchor down into the deep.

I find in discussions that some people refer to it as the whole chain and rope assembly where other places it is only the chain.

Any elucidation out there?

[camaraderie]

You looked at the wrong wiki!
rode - Wiktionary
rode (plural rodes)
(nautical) The line from the vessel to its anchor.

[Craig Smith]

Rode is the entire linkage to the anchor, chain and/or rope.

It is possibly just an adopted noun from the verb "ride" (the ship rode at its anchor before sailing on the ebbing tide) but as with many words the etymology is not clear. One thought is that is comes from directly from the Latin rude, rudens, which means "rope". I am not an expert but I understand that the Latin context was nautical and the word was also used where we would say "tackle" and "cable".