A.Word.A.Day--froward

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Nov 11, 2019

This week’s theme
Misc. words

This week’s words
froward

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A.Word.A.Day

with Anu Garg

Is time circular? Who knows. In one way, what has happened never comes back.

On the other hand, every year, the clock strikes again, a new year begins, and we get another chance to look forward and back.

When I have a difficult decision to make, I like to think what I would be wondering when I knew my time had run out: I wish I had been a little kinder? I wish had spoken out more when I saw a wrong? I wish I had stood up for what I believed in even when it was going to cost me?

A time comes when even those who considered themselves the mightiest rulers of the world are gone, never to be able to change what they did or what the world thinks of them. We can’t reverse time, at least not yet. So why not do it right in the first place?

We are all connected, in time and place. A thread, however slender, connects us to the rest of the humanity.

This week’s words are somewhat like that. Each is different, but is connected to other words in some way.

froward

PRONUNCIATION:

(FRO-wurd/urd)

MEANING:

adjective: Difficult to deal with; contrary.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Middle English fro- (away, from) + -ward (moving or facing in a specific direction). Earliest documented use: 1340.

NOTES:

If you recall the phrase to-and-fro (which is short for “to and from”), you can easily sense where froward is going. It’s the opposite of toward. Over time, the senses of the two words have shifted so they are not antonyms any more.

USAGE:

“Sir Andrew, who was far from valorous, thought there might be wisdom in the Justice’s words, and remembered that he had troubles enough of his own with a froward wife without taking up the burdens of others.”
Rafael Sabatini; The Sea-Hawk; Martin Secker; 1915.

See more usage examples of froward in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

Brothers don't necessarily have to say anything to each other -- they can sit in a room and be together and just be completely comfortable with each other. -Leonardo DiCaprio, actor and director (b. 11 Nov 1974)

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