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==Placenames==
The names of many towns and villages are derived from the word 'ford'. Examples include [[Oxford]] (a ford where [[ox]]en crossed the river: see the [[Coat of arms of Oxford|Oxford coat of arms]]); [[Hertford]], the county town of [[Hertfordshire]] (the ford where [[Hart (deer)|harts]] cross or "deer crossing"); [[Ammanford]] (a ford on the [[River Amman]]); [[Staffort]] crossing the river [[Pfinz]]; and [[Stratford, London|Stratford]] (a ford on a [[Roman road|Roman street]]). Similarly, the [[German language|German]] word ''Furt'' (as in [[Frankfurt]], the ford of the [[Franks]]; [[Ochsenfurt]], synonymous to Oxford; [[Schweinfurt]], a ford where [[swine]] crossed the river; and [[Klagenfurt]], literally "ford of complaints") and the [[Dutch language|Dutch]] ''voorde'' (as in [[Vilvoorde]], [[Coevorden]], [[Zandvoort]], or [[Amersfoort]]) are [[cognate]]s with the same meaning, all deriving from [[Proto-Indo-European language|Proto-Indo-European]] ''*pértus'' 'crossing'. This is the source of [[Common Brittonic|Brythonic]] and [[Gaulish language|Gaulish]] ''ritus'' (modern [[Welsh language|Welsh]] ''rhyd''; the Welsh name of Oxford is ''Rhydychen'' "ford of oxen"), which underlies such names as [[Chambord, Loir-et-Cher|Chambord]] (from Gaulish ''*Camboritum'' "ford at the bend") and [[Niort]] (''Novioritum'' "new ford").
Towns such as [[Maastricht]], [[Dordrecht]], and [[Utrecht]] also formed at fords. The endings {{lang|nl|tricht}}, {{lang|nl|drecht}}, and {{lang|nl|trecht}} are derived from the [[Latin]] word ''traiectum'', meaning "crossing". Thus the name Utrecht, originally the Roman fort of [[Traiectum (Utrecht)|Traiectum]], is derived from "Uut Trecht", meaning "downstream crossing". The [[Afrikaans]] form was taken into [[South African English]] as '''drift''' and led to place names like [[Rorke's Drift]] and [[Velddrif|Velddrift]]. Similarly, in [[Slavic languages]], the word [[wikt:brod|brod]] comes from the linguistic root that means "river-crossing" or "place where a river can be crossed". Although today ''brod'' in the [[Serbo-Croatian]] means 'ship', [[Slavonski Brod]] in Croatia, as well as [[Makedonski Brod]] in [[North Macedonia]] and other place names containing ''Brod'' in Slavic countries, where ''brod'' is still the word for 'ford', are named after fords.
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