inward

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English inward,^[2][3] inherited from Old English inweard, also inneweard and innanweard,^{[4][5][6][2][7]} formed from innan (“within”), inne or inn (“in”) and the suffix -weard, the source of -ward.^[4][6][8] Merriam-Webster describes it as a prehistoric West Germanic compound,^[2] and it is cognate with Old Norse innanverðr (“interior, inward”), Old High German inwart (later inwart) and Middle Dutch inwaert.^{[4][9][10][6]} The adverb, Old English inneweard or inweard, is the same word.^[9][2][5] Barnhart dates the Old English forms to about 725, in “Beowulf”.^[10]

Earliest recorded meaning

Situated within; inner, especially of the body: in Old English, in King Alfred's translation of Boethius.^[4] In Old English the adjective also meant "inmost", "sincere" and "deep", as in praying mid inweardre heortan, with inward heart.^[9][7] The adverb, of movement towards the inside, appears in the Old English Gospel of Nicodemus.^[4][7]

Semantic evolution

Already in Old English the word was applied to the heart, mind and soul as inner seats of feeling.^[4] From the early 13th century (Juliana) the adjective was used of thoughts and spiritual states as opposed to bodily ones.^[4][5] In late Middle English it meant heartfelt or earnest, and also devout.^[4][5] In the 16th and 17th centuries an inward friend was an intimate one, and an inward relation close; these senses are now obsolete or rare.^[4][5] Later it was used of the interior of a country (1635), and of a muffled voice (1774).^[4] The sense "directed towards the inside", as in inward investment, is recorded from the mid-19th century.^[5][11] The noun, from late Old English, meant the inner parts of the body, the entrails;^[9][5] its plural inwards gave the colloquial innards.^[6] In English dialects inward was pronounced innard or innerd, inwards were the entrails of animals, especially pigs, and in Sussex an inward person was silent and reserved.^[12]

Timeline

• Old English – adjective, situated within; adverb, towards the inside.^[4][7]
• late Old English – noun, the entrails.^[9][5]
• before 1225 – of the mind or spirit, as opposed to the body.^[4]
• c. 1402 – heartfelt, earnest (obsolete by 1627).^[4]
• 1572 – intimate, closely acquainted (obsolete by 1630).^[4]
• 1611 – the verb inward, to enter (obsolete).^[4]
• 1635 – in the interior of a country; inland.^[4]
• 1774 – of a voice, muffled.^[4]
• mid 19th century – directed or coming towards the inside.^[5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Directed or moving towards the inside or centre: an inward curve.^[11][2][5]
2. Situated on the inside; inner or internal.^[11][2][4]
3. Of or relating to the mind or spirit: She felt a quiet inward joy.^[11][2][4]
4. Coming into a country from abroad: inward investment.^[11][5]
5. Of a voice or sound, muffled and indistinct.^[2][4]
6. (obsolete) Intimate, closely acquainted (1572–1630).^[4][5]

Adverb

1. Towards the inside or the centre; inwards: The walls seemed to lean inward.^[11][2][4]
2. Into the mind or soul: to turn inward.^[5][4]

Noun

1. The inside or inner part of something.^[11][2][5]
2. Inner nature or essence.^[2][5]
3. (in the plural) The entrails; innards.^[5][6]

Word family

• inwards
• inwardly
• inwardness
• inward light

Related words

• outward
• innards
• inner
• toward

Usage notes

Merriam-Webster also records a separate historical term inward, a bodyguard service that sokemen owed the king when he visited their shire, from Medieval Latin inwarda, probably from an assumed Old English compound of in and weard (“guard”).^[2]

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 Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b c d e Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
8. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
10. ^ a b Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
11. ^ a b c d e f g Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
12. ^ 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)