Toft
/tɒft/noun
A site or plot of land on which a house or homestead once stood or stands, especially in northern British usage.
Did you know?Place-names ending in “-toft” often preserve evidence of Scandinavian settlement in northern and eastern England, where Norse settlers used the word for a house-site or homestead plot.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Germanic
PGmc
*tuftō
“A small raised place, plot, or homestead site; the reconstructed ancestor proposed for the Scandinavian and English forms.”
Old Norse
Old Norse
topt / tóft
“A homestead site, house plot, or the remains of a dwelling.”
Old English
Old English
toft
“A site where a house or building stood, especially a homestead plot.”
Middle English
Middle English
toft
“A piece of ground occupied by a house or formerly containing a house.”
Modern English
English
toft
“A house-site or homestead plot, chiefly preserved in dialect and place-names.”