froward

Etymology

It is formed from English fro + -ward,^{[2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10]} literally turned away from, the opposite of toward.^[3] The first element is from Old Norse frá (“from”).^[11][12][13] Etymonline regards the word as the Northern form of Old English fromweard with the Norse word in place of the English one,^[12] and the Oxford Dictionary of English and the Shorter Oxford begin with a late Old English form frāward.^[14][9] The Old English adjective, recorded before 899 in Alfred's translation of Boethius and meaning turned from or away, departing, combines from and -weard^[3][15] and is the ancestor of the variant fromward.^[3][2] Johnson derived the English word from Old English framweard,^[16] and Skeat called it Scandinavian and English.^[13]

Earliest recorded meaning

Away, as an adverb: before 1131, in the annal for 1127 of the Peterborough Chronicle.^[11][2] As a preposition, away from, it appears about 1175 in the Ormulum.^[2] Dictionary.com dates the word to 1150–1200,^[17] Hoad to the 13th century,^[6] and Barnhart first finds the adjective fraward, contrary, probably before 1325 in the Cursor Mundi.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The word started as a plain term of direction, the counterpart of toward, and turned figurative: someone turned away is someone contrary.^[3][2] Etymonline and Weekley note that it rendered Latin words for "perverse" in early translations of the Psalms,^[12][8] and it could also mean about to depart or doomed to die.^[12] The Middle English adjective covered people who were different, unwilling, unruly, stubborn or hostile, and the OED adds things that were adverse or ill-formed.^[11][2] Gower and the Romaunt among the Chaucer apocrypha use it for willful and perverse.^[18] Johnson (1755) gave "peevish; ungovernable; angry; perverse", and contrasted it with toward, quoting Shakespeare's "She's not froward, but modest as the dove" and Proverbs.^[16] The adverb went out in the 16th and early 17th centuries and the preposition has long been rare;^[2][9] the adjective is now archaic.^[10][9]

Timeline

• before 1131 – adverb, away, in a direction leading away.^[11][2]
• c. 1175 – preposition, away from.^[2]
• before 1325 – adjective fraward, contrary.^[3]
• c. 1330 – the spelling froward.^[3]
• 1340 – of people, perverse, hard to deal with, ungovernable.^[2]
• before 1400 – of things, adverse, unfavourable; adverb, perversely.^[2]
• before 1529 – noun, a froward person or thing (obsolete by 1581).^[2]
• 1628 – verb, to make froward, recorded once.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (archaic) Habitually contrary and hard to manage; stubborn or perverse.^{[10][4][2][9]}
2. (archaic) Of things or circumstances, adverse or unfavourable.^[4][2][9]

Adverb

1. (obsolete, before 1131–1611) Away, in a direction leading from a person or thing.^[2][11][9]
2. (obsolete, before 1400–1580) Perversely, in an untoward manner.^[2][9]

Preposition

1. (obsolete or archaic, c. 1175–1861) Away from.^[2][11][9]

Noun

1. (obsolete, before 1529–1581) A froward person or thing.^[2][9]

Word family

• frowardly
• frowardness
• unfroward

Related words

• fro
• from
• fromward
• toward
• forward
• wayward

Usage notes

Merriam-Webster Unabridged discusses the word under its synonyms of contrary.^[4] Dictionary.com warns against confusing it with forward and foreword.^[17] Wright's dialect dictionary has a Devon noun froward, a foreland or headland, from a single correspondent, with no link to the adjective stated.^[19]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
11. ^ a b c d e f 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)
12. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
13. ^ a b Skeat, Walter W. (1911), A Concise Etymological Dictionary of the English Language, new ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
14. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
15. ^ Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
16. ^ 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.
17. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
18. ^ Benson, Larry D., Glossarial Concordance to Middle English (Chaucer, Gower), Johns Hopkins University, github.com/jhu-digital-manuscripts/gcme
19. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)