froward

Did You Know?

Once upon a time, in the days of Middle English, froward and toward were opposites. Froward meant "moving or facing away from something or someone;" toward meant "moving or facing in the direction of something or someone." (The suffix -ward is from Old English -weard, meaning "moving, tending, facing.") Froward also meant "difficult to deal with, perverse"; toward meant "willing, compliant, obliging." Each went its own way in the end: froward lost its "away from" sense as long ago as the 16th century and the "willing" sense of toward disappeared in the 18th century. A third relative, untoward, developed in the 15th century as a synonym for froward in its "unruly or intractable" sense, and later developed other meanings, including "improper or indecorous."