n.
?'ford, shore'
(Modern English warth)Derived formally from OE waroð ‘shore, strand, beach’, apparently a PGmc formation *waruþaz on the root *war- as in OE werian ‘to defend’ (etc.), which OED, MED, GDS and TG give as the sole etymon. ON semantic influence has been argued on the basis of apparent confusion with ME, PDE wath (certainly of ON origin, cp. OIcel vað ‘wading place, ford’ < PGmc *waðan) suggested by the MnE N dial variant <warth(e)>, which has thus acquired the meaning ‘ford’ historically proper to wath (and ON vað) (thus Haworth 1967, followed by TGDn). Whether this influence is present in Gaw 715 is debatable, as it may be glossed either 'shore' or 'ford' and there are proponents for both alternatives (‘Shore’ (etc.): OED, GDS, TG, Jones. ‘Ford’: Madden, Morris, MED, TGD, Haworth 1967, Winny, Barron, Burrow, A/W, Vantuono).
PGmc Ancestor
*waruþaz
Proposed ON Etymon (OIcel representative)
cp. vað ‘wading place, ford’
(ONP cp. vað (sb.))
Other Scandinavian Reflexes
Far vað, Icel vað, Norw vad, ODan vad, Dan vad, Sw vad
OE Cognate
waroð ‘shore, strand, beach’
Phonological and morphological markers
Summary category
CC3c
MED cites the word from only four non-onomastic sources (excluding Gaw) and in all cases it seems to mean ‘shore’ rather than ‘ford’. See etymological discussion, EDD and OED on the MnE N dial variant <warth(e)>. For the place-name evidence see EPNE s.v. waroð (etc.), Hug 1987: 170–1, 177 and MED sense (d); waroð is represented in names across England.
Occurrences in the Gersum Corpus
Gaw 715