Forms: 1 ford, 3 south. vord, 4–6 fo(o)rde, 4–5 furd, forth(e, (4 fourde, foorth, 5 furthe, 6 furde), 6–7 foord, 7 foard, 3– ford. [OE. ford str. masc. = OS. -ford (in place-names), OHG. furt (MHG. vurt, mod.Ger. furt):—WGer. *furdu-z:—pre-Teut. *pṛtú-s, found in OWelsh rit, now rhyd ford, L. portus PORT, harbour, f. Aryan root *per-, Teut. *fer-, far-, fur- to go, pass: see FARE v. The ON. fiǫrðr FIORD (:—*ferþu-z:—*pértus) differs in ablaut grade.]
1. A shallow place in a river or other water, where a man or beast may cross by wading.
c. 893. K. Ælfred, Oros., V. xii. § 2. Neh þæm forda þe mon hæt Welengaford.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Gen. xxxii. 22. He … oferfor þone ford.
c. 1205. Lay., 20159. Arður wende his speres ord; and for-stod heom þene uord.
c. 1330. R. Brunne, Chron. (1810), 187. Passage non he nam, þe forthes wer withsette.
1382. Wyclif, Josh. ii. 7. Forsothe thei, that weren sent, folweden hem bi the weye that ledith to the foordis of Jordan.
c. 1425. Wyntoun, Cron., VIII. xxvi. 115.
| Men sayis, ane met þame in þe Forde, | |
| Ðat prewaly wyth-owtyn worde | |
| Led þame wp by þe Wattyr syne, | |
| Qwhill þai to þe Gask come and Duplyne. |
1535. Coverdale, Isa. x. 28. At Machmas shal he muster his hooste, and go ouer ye foorde.
1792. Burke, Corr. (1844), IV. 27. The fords must have been impassable in those floods.
1850. Tennyson, In Mem., vi.
| And, even when she turn’d, the curse | |
| Had fallen, and her future Lord | |
| Was drown’d in passing thro’ the ford, | |
| Or kill’d in falling from his horse. |
1875. F. Hall, A Night of Adventures, in Lippincott’s Mag., XVI. Dec., 749/1. The guide had strayed off the ford, and I was foundering in a quicksand.
Proverb.
1575. Gascoigne, Cert. Notes of Instr. (Arb.), 34. Our Poemes may iustly be called Rithmes, and cannot by any right challenge the name of a Verse. But since it is so, let vs take the forde as we finde it.
1637. Rutherford, Lett., ciii. (1863), I. 262. I speak this of that lovely One, because I praise and commend the ford (as we use to speak) as I find it.
† 2. a. A tract of shallow water. b. Used (like L. vadum) for: The sea (rare–1). c. poet. A stream, current (primarily with reference to passage). Obs.
1563. W. Fulke, Meteors (1640), 56 b. Brookes, boornes or fordes, bee small streames of water, that ronne in a channell. Ibid. Ryuers are caused by the meatynge together, not only of many springs but also of many brookes and fordes, which being received in divers places as they passe, are at the length caried into the broad Sea for the most part.
1565. Golding, Ovid’s Met., VI. (1593), 143. Their ship from land with ores was haled on the foord.
1596. Spenser, F. Q., III. vi. 34.
| Ne doe they need with water of the ford, | |
| Or of the clouds to moysten their roots dry; | |
| For in themselues eternall moisture they imply. |
1610. W. Folkingham, Art of Survey, I. x. 24. Boggie and spungie grounds are not a little setled, fastened and firmed by frequent ouer-flowing them with Fords or Land-flouds.
c. 1645. Howell, Lett. (1688), IV. 495. The greatest Doctors of the Church compar’d it [the Apocalyps] to a deep Foard wherein an Elephant might swim.
1661. Lovell, Hist. Anim. & Min., Introd. They [Cartilagineous Fishes] live in the deep sea, and when they bring forth, they goe to the foords & shores.
a. 1780. Ball. Johnie Cock, iii., in Child, Ballads, V. cxiv. (1888), 3/1.
| There are seven forsters at Pickeram Side, | |
| At Pickeram where they dwell, | |
| And for a drop of thy heart’s bluid | |
| They wad ride the fords of hell. |
3. attrib., as ford-way.
1721. in Temple & Sheldon, Hist. Northfield, Mass. (1875), 223. On Dry brook, between Deerfield and Northfield, beginning 20 rods west of the fordway.
1858. I. F. Redfield, Law Railways (1860), I. 231. Where a ford-way was destroyed, by the erection of a dam across a river … it was held the owner of the ford-way could recover no compensation from the state.
