wayward

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English weiward, a shortened form from Middle English aweiward (“turned away”),^{[2][3][4][5][6][7][8]} which is formed from Middle English awei + -ward, from away and -ward.^[9][10][4] The OED allows that the word may instead have been formed directly from the adverb way and the suffix.^[9] The adverb goes back to late Old English aweg, earlier on weg.^[2] The Oxford Dictionary of English and the OED compare froward.^[8][9] Johnson derived it from the Saxon words for "woe" and "ward".^[11]

Earliest recorded meaning

Disposed to go against what is right, perverse: c. 1384, in the early Wycliffite Bible, "Ȝif thyn eiȝe be weyward, al thi body shal be derkful" (Matthew 6:23).^[3][9] The adjective awayward had already been used of a perverse, self-willed person before 1375, in William of Palerne.^[9]

Semantic evolution

In Middle English the word covered perverse or wicked behaviour, perverted judgement and false doctrine.^[3] Hoad thinks its development was probably influenced by the notion that it came from way, as if "bent on going one's own way",^[6] and the OED notes that some uses seem directly associated with way.^[9] Etymonline, quoting the Century Dictionary, puts it that the word applies to someone who turns away from what is expected, but from its seeming derivation has come to mean someone who turns towards ways that suit himself.^[2] By the 1530s it also meant capricious or erratic.^[2][9] From about 1541 it was also used of a disease that would not yield to treatment.^[9] The sense "perverse, unjust" of judgement died out in the mid-17th century.^[5] Johnson (1755) defined it as "froward; peevish; morose; vexatious".^[11] A verb wayward, to be prejudiced, is recorded once, in 1577.^[9]

Timeline

• c. 1384 – disposed to go against what is right; of judgement, perverse, unjust.^[9][3]
• 1528 – of appearance, words or actions, showing obstinate self-will.^[9]
• 1529 – noun, wayward people as a class.^[9]
• 1531 – capricious, erratic, unpredictable.^[9]
• c. 1541 – of a disease, not yielding to treatment; later, unpredictable in its course.^[9]
• c. 1544 – of a thing or condition, contrary to what is wished; untoward.^[9]
• 1577 – verb, to be prejudiced (only record).^[9]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Determined to have one's own way regardless of others; disobedient and hard to control: a wayward teenager.^[12][4][9]
2. Following no fixed rule; capricious, erratic or unpredictable: A wayward gust tipped over the canoe.^[12][9][5]
3. Of a medical condition, unpredictable or anomalous in its course.^[9]
4. (obsolete) Of judgement, perverse or unjust.^[9][5]

Word family

• waywardly
• waywardness
• unwayward

Related words

• away
• way
• froward
• -ward

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d 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)
4. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
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 Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ 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
10. ^ 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.
12. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins