Word of the Day

froward \FROH-erd\
adjective: habitually disposed to disobedience and opposition
Examples:
The nanny informed the parents that she would seek employment elsewhere if the froward child could not be compelled to be more obedient.

“I first saw [the great-tailed grackles] during that amazing week in Texas three years ago and looked forward to renewing our acquaintance. By the end of the trip I was happy to be rid of them—pushy, froward little party-crashing beasts that make rude, high-pitched squeals and constantly invite themselves to dinner, filching from unattended plates.” — From an article in the Lewiston Morning Tribune (Idaho), September 30, 2010
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.”