ford

• foorth (obsolete, [14th century])

From Middle English ford, from Old English ford, from Proto-Germanic *furduz, from Proto-Indo-European *pértus (“crossing”). Cognate with English firth, fjord (via Old Norse), Low German Föörd, Dutch voord, German Furt, Danish and Norwegian fjord, and more distantly with English port (via Latin).

• (General American) IPA^(key): /fɔɹd/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /fɔːd/
• (rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger) IPA^(key): /fo(ː)ɹd/
• (non-rhotic, without the horse–hoarse merger) IPA^(key): /foəd/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɔː(ɹ)d

ford (plural fords)

1. A location where a stream is shallow and the bottom has good footing, making it possible to cross from one side to the other with no bridge, by walking, riding, or driving through the water; a crossing.
   • Sir Walter Scott

     He swam the Esk river where ford there was none.

2. A stream; a current.
   • Spenser

     With water of the ford / Or of the clouds.

   • Dryden

     Permit my ghost to pass the Stygian ford.

ford (third-person singular simple present fords, present participle fording, simple past and past participle forded)

1. To cross a stream using a ford.
   • 1903, Mary Hunter Austin, The Land of Little Rain, Houghton Mifflin, pp. 31-2,

     Since the time of Seyavi the deer have shifted their feeding ground across the valley at the beginning of deep snows, by way of the Black Rock, fording the river at Charley's Butte, and making straight for the mouth of the cañon that is the easiest going to the winter pastures on Waban.

   • 1982, Nadine Gordimer, "A Hunting Accident" in A Soldier's Embrace, Penguin, p. 59,

     Ratau drove with reckless authority through the quiet morning fires of his father's and forefathers' town and forded a river of goats on the road leading out of it.

   • 2016, Bruce McClure and Deborah Byrd, "EarthSky's meteor shower guide for 2016" in earthsky.org,

     Some who witnessed the 1966 Leonid meteor storm said they felt as if they needed to grip the ground, so strong was the impression of Earth plowing along through space, fording the meteoroid stream.

• fordable
• forder
• fording

• dorf

From Proto-Germanic *furduz (“ford”). Cognate with Old Frisian ford, Old Saxon ford, Old Dutch ford, Old High German furt.

• IPA^(key): /ˈford/, [ˈforˠd]

ford m

1. ford

• Middle English: ford, furd, foord
  • English: ford
  • Scots: furde, furd, fuird

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  (file)

ford

1. Soft mutation of bord.