awry

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English awri,^[2][3] earlier written as the phrase on wry,^{[3][4][5][6][7]} formed from English a- + wry, the prefix meaning "on".^{[8][9][10][6]} The OED and Merriam-Webster take the second part as the noun wry, a twist,^[8][6] Etymonline as the adjective wry,^[9] and the American Heritage Dictionary as the verb wrien (“to turn, be crooked”).^[10] The verb is from Old English wrīgian (“to turn, bend, move, go”).^[9][3] The OED compares aright and awrong.^[8]

Earliest recorded meaning

On a slant, askew: before 1398, in Trevisa's Bartholomaeus, of the mouth set a wry & aside.^[2] The OED's first record is from about 1400, in the Romaunt of the Rose, in the phrase to look awry, to look askance,^[8][2] and Skeat cites on wry from Barbour's Bruce.^[4][5]

Semantic evolution

The literal sense "turned or twisted to one side" is the oldest.^[9][8] The figurative sense "out of the right course, amiss" is recorded from before 1513,^[8] and phrases such as to go awry, run awry and tread awry, of a person going wrong or a thing turning out badly, from 1524, in a letter of Thomas More.^[8] To tread the shoe awry meant to fall from virtue, and was compared with French faux pas.^[8] Johnson (1755) listed five senses: not straight, obliquely; asquint; not level; not equally between two points; and not in a right state, perversely.^[11] The word was also used as a verb, to turn aside, from 1604.^[8]

Timeline

• before 1398 – on a slant, askew.^[2]
• c. 1400 – to look awry, to look askance.^[8][2]
• before 1513 – figuratively, amiss, wrongly.^[8]
• 1524 – to go awry, to go wrong.^[8]
• before 1542 – to tread the shoe awry, to fall from virtue.^[8]
• before 1586 – adjective, figuratively, turned from the right course.^[8]
• 1604 – verb, to turn aside.^[8]
• before 1657 – adjective, out of place, crooked.^[8]

Meanings

Adverb

1. Turned or twisted to one side; askew: Her hat sat awry after the wind.^[6][7][8]
2. Away from the expected or right course; amiss, wrong: The rescue plan went badly awry.^[6][7][8]
3. look awry: to look sideways or askance.^[8][11]

Adjective

1. Crooked or out of place; not as it should be.^[6][7][8]

Related words

• wry
• aright
• awrong

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
6. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
10. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
11. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.