† ˈchesford Obs. exc. dial.
Also 7 chesfoord, chesseford, 9 dial. cheeseford.
[f. cheese + ford, possibly a corruption of fat in an unaccented syllable; but not certainly explained (can it have been mixed up with the -hood of chessart, chizzard?).]
A cheese-vat.
| 1596 Wills & Inv. N.C. (1860) II. 271, xj chesfordes, for cheese. 1611 Cotgr., Caseret, a cheese-fat, or chesford, to make a cheese in. Ibid., Fromage esclissé, formed in the Cheese-fat; or, that hath still on it the print of the Chesfoord. 1825–79 Jamieson, Chessford, Cheeseford, the mould in which Cheese is made. Also Chizzard, Kaisart. 1881 Evans Leicestersh. Wds. (E.D.S.) Chesford, var. pron. of ‘cheese-vat’. |