Plural of ford; shallow parts of a river or stream where you can cross on foot or in a vehicle.
From Old English 'ford,' possibly related to Proto-Germanic 'furdiz.' The word originally described any place shallow enough to cross water safely.
Place names are full of fords—Oxford, Guildford, Bradford. Medieval travelers learned all the fords in their region because bridges were rare and expensive; knowing where to cross a river safely was literally a matter of life and death.
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