Ilford

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A large suburban district in the London Borough of Redbridge in east London ; a British company known for making black and white photographic film and paper
2. A town in east London, England, within the London Borough of Redbridge ; a manufacturer of photographic film, paper and chemicals based in Britain
3. A residential area in the east of London, England ; the name of a British firm that produces monochrome photographic film and printing paper

Etymology: Ilford is a place name, and its history is a plain one: it describes a crossing. The name was first recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086 as "Ilefort", meaning "ford over the Hyle", where the Hyle was an old name for the River Roding. That older river name is thought to mean "trickling stream", so the place was named for a shallow point where travellers could wade across that water. The word is built from two parts. The first is "Hyle", the ancient river name, and the second is "ford", an Old English word for a shallow place where a river can be crossed on foot. Over the centuries the spelling shifted from "Ilefort" to the modern "Ilford", while the meaning of the name stayed the same. Many English place names ending in "-ford" follow this pattern, marking a river crossing that was once essential to local travel.