Other forms: townships
A township is a small town, or an administrative district. A rural township, township records, the township of Oakwood.
In America and Canada it is a unit of local government, often a square six miles across from the old survey grid. In South Africa the word means something quite different and heavier: the segregated urban areas black residents were confined to under apartheid.
1nountownshipA small town, or an administrative district.
“They live in a small farming township a few miles from the nearest city.”
township is a district.
Old English tunscipe meant the people of a town, from tun, an enclosure or settlement, plus -ship.
Old English
tūnsċipe — the inhabitants of a town; township
Middle English
towneship
English, today
township
From Middle English towneship, townschip, tounshipe, tunscipe, from Old English tūnsċipe (“the inhabitants of a town; township”), equivalent to town + -ship.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA