Milford

Part of speech: noun, verb

Definitions

1. A municipality in New Haven County, Connecticut ; a town in Worcester County, Massachusetts ; a town in Hillsborough County, New Hampshire ; any of various other towns and settlements named after the earlier settlements
2. A city located in southern Connecticut near New Haven ; a community in central Massachusetts west of Boston ; a municipality in southern New Hampshire near the Massachusetts border ; various other geographic locations sharing this name
3. An urban area in Connecticut situated in the New Haven region ; a town in Massachusetts positioned in the central part of the state ; a New Hampshire municipality in the southern portion of the state ; additional places designated by this name

Etymology: Milford is a place name, not a common word, and its history is simply that of its two parts. It is formed from "mill" and "ford": a crossing point on a stream where a mill stood beside the water. English place names built this way are numerous, and the combination describes a physical arrangement rather than a single named event. The first element, "mill," comes from Old English "myln," itself borrowed from an early Germanic root, while "ford" is an Old English word for a shallow place where people or animals could cross a river on foot.