Administrative divisions of land, typically six miles square in the US survey system. In some countries, segregated residential areas for non-white populations.
From Old English 'tūnscipe' meaning 'village community', from 'tūn' (enclosure, village) + 'scipe' (state, condition). The US survey meaning developed from colonial land division systems, while the South African usage emerged from apartheid-era segregation.
American townships create a geometric grid across much of the country - flying over the Midwest reveals this remarkable pattern of six-mile squares imposed on the landscape. In South Africa, the same word carries the heavy history of apartheid, showing how identical terms can hold vastly different social meanings.
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