Just to remark that Hereford, pronounced the Rightpondian way or written, is a perfectly comprehensible Old English phrase meaning ‘army ford’.  After well over a millennium of use, and all the impact of Norman French and Latin, any Anglo-Saxon would instantly understand it.
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Really? They’d understand /he’ rə fəd/ instantly?

OP Tipping - 06 February 2012 06:32 PM

… and all the impact of Norman French and Latin…
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Surely “here” in hereford is related to Scandinavian här (army), rather than Norman French or Latin?

Surely so. I believe SL’s point was that _despite_ the impact of the Romance languages, this A-S word remained more or less the same.

You’re doubtless right, OP. I read the less suitable sense…

What’s interesting is not that it “survived” the influx of Romance words. Place names are generally impervious to such things. The interesting thing is that it survived the Great Vowel Shift, which is (probably) unconnected to Romance influence) largely intact.

More imdb.com silliness: I just looked up the movie MASH and found it described as a “cult” movie.

That’s the third MASH reference I’ve seen here today

Well, my two are related. I was double checking Lt. Dish and ran across the “cult” reference. (And Joanne Pflug as Lt. Dish is well worth double checking.) But I disavow all responsibility for “brown gobbets.”