▪ I. wath Obs. exc. dial.
Also (1 wæð), 5 wadth, wat(t)he, 6 erron. warthe, 6– erron. warth.
[a. ON. vað neut. (MSw. vaþ, Sw., Da. vad) = OE. wæd (pl. wado), poet. the sea, the waves, MLG. wat (wad-), Du. wad, OHG. wat:—OTeut. *waðo-m:—pre-Teut. *wadho-m = L. vadum; cogn. w. wade v.]
A ford; a fordable stream.
In quot. c 1100 used as the proper name of the river Forth.
| [c 1100 O.E. Chron. (MS. D.) an. 1073 Wyllelm..þæt land on þa sæ healfe mid scypum ymb læiᵹ & him sylf mid his landfyrde ferde inn ofer þæt Wæð (Laud MS. þæt ᵹewæd).] c 1450 St. Cuthbert (Surtees) 5757 Þe watir þat time was farr ebband;..But or he was þe wath all past, The wawes come agayne him fast. c 1475 Pict. Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 799/41 Hoc vadum, a wadth. 1483 Cath. Angl. 410/1 A wathe, vadum, flustrum. 1570 Levins Manip. 38/40 A watthe, foorde, vadum. 1583 Inquis. Sewers Linc. (1851) 12 That the Township of Burringham in making their warthes or fordes over the aforesaid dytches do not cast in more sand then is needful for passage of their cattell into the Northmoores. 1610 in N. Riding Rec. (1884) I. 204 Forasmuch as Skipton bridge..is likely to..become ruinous by..carriages of great burthen,..a ford or wath is there made passable for such purposes. 1674 Ray N.C. Words s.v., A Warth; a Waterford. 1691 ― Gloss. Northanhymb. s.v., A Wath. Vadum. 1697 De la Pryme Diary (Surtees) 153 From thence I went over a wath, which tradition says was formerly a great river. 1730 P. Walkden Diary 4 May (1866) 115 Then came over a corner of Ellhill moor as direct as I could to Wire and over it at a warth. 1825 Brockett N.C. Gloss., Wath, warth, a water-ford. 1890 R. S. Ferguson Hist. Cumbld. 270 They tried to evade that fortress by taking to the waths over Eden, between Carlisle and the sea. 1894 Carlisle Patriot 15 June 7/3 (Cumbld. Gloss.) The new bridge over the Kingwater will stand on the site of the wall at the place of the ford or wath. |
b. Comb., as wath gate (gate n.2), wath mouth, wath way. Also wathstead.
| 1662 Dugdale Imbanking & Drayning 201/1 That the Prior of Haverholme ought to find a certain boat at the Bothe, neer to the Wathe mouthe, for to carry over foot-folk, aswell by night as day. 1876 Whitby Gloss. s.v., ‘Wath⁓geeat,’ the direction of the ford. 1905 Eng. Dial. Dict. s.v., Wath-way, a ford. (East Lincolnshire.) |
▪ II. wath(e
see waith n.1, what, wothe.