Definitions
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- Suffixes denoting
course ordirection to ;motion ortendency toward ; as in backward , or backwards ; toward , or towards , etc.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- suffix Forming adverbs denoting course or direction to, or motion or tendency toward, as in "backward", "toward", "forward", etc.
- suffix Forming adjectives, as in "a backward look", "the northward road", etc; used even by speakers who usually use -wards for adverbs.
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
From Old English -weard, -weardes; akin to Old Saxon and Old Frisian -ward. Old High German -wert, German -wärts, Icelandic -verðr, Gothic -vaírþs, Latin vertere to turn, versus toward, and English worth to become. See wort, intransitive verb, and compare verse.
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Examples
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milosrdenstvi commented on the word -ward
A suffix of directionality: upward, downward, skyward, landward, toward, forward, leftward, rightward, westward, windward, homeward.
So where is awk?
December 30, 2010