FROWARD

[Dr. Goodword]

• froward •

Pronunciation: fro-wêrd • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Adjective

Meaning: Stubbornly disobedient, rebellious, antagonistic, contrary in the extreme.

Notes: Today's Good Word is even more forward than forward itself. Someone who is forward is just a little too aggressive, impolite, speaking too familiarly too soon. Someone who is froward is openly rebellious, just the opposite of someone who is toward "affable, friendly", another excellent word on the brink of extinction. (Toward, in fact, is far less often heard today than its negative, untoward, as in 'an untoward remark'.) We behave frowardly when we are possessed of frowardness.

In Play: We all pass through a stage in which we are consistently froward: "Lionel is three years old and just entering that froward stage when he does just the opposite of what we ask him to do." That is why 'reverse psychology' was invented. Frowardness is not smiled upon generally but it is particularly awkward in the business world: "Ally Katz is much too froward to succeed in the corporate world; she will be lucky to keep her current job."

Word History: When the Vikings began invading the coastal areas of England and Scotland the Old Norse word for "from" was frá. Scots English absorbed this word and today you will hear fra rather than from in many Scottish dialects. In British English, this word influenced from, costing it its closing M for a while in some dialects though, generally, from held its ground. We hear fro today only in a few old words like today's Good One and a few phrases like to and fro. Froward remained alongside fromward "thence, away from" though both words are used far less often today than they deserve. (Today's Good Word came from the very toward Samuel Keays, who is not at all froward.)

[Perry]

In play: I hope that you won't think I am being too forward, if I point out just how froward you are being about listening to your teachers.

[scw1217]

I knew this word already because it appears 21 times in the King James Version of the Bible.

According to Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, froward is translated from 5 different Hebrew words. Here are the two most used. And interestingly enough, it is only in the Old Testament.

H8419
תּהפּכה
tahpûkâh
tah-poo-kaw'
From H2015; a perversity or fraud: - (very) froward (-ness, thing), perverse thing.

and

H6617
פּתל
pâthal
paw-thal'
A primitive root; to twine, that is, (literally) to struggle or (figuratively) be (morally) tortuous: - (shew self) froward, shew self unsavoury, wrestle.

[Perry]

Actually, stiff-necked (קשה עורף or kashe oref) is most often used in the Old Testament as the term for stubborness. (At least to my knowledge.)

[scw1217]

Actually, stiff-necked (קשה עורף or kashe oref) is most often used in the Old Testament as the term for stubborness. (At least to my knowledge.)

I am by no means a Hebrew scholar. But if you use Strong's Concordance, underneath the word froward it gives you all the scripture references. Then for each use it gives you the Strong's dictionary number. Those 2 were the most popular. I know sometimes alternate numbers are actually the same word only in a different tense. However, that said, the same Hebrew word is often translated elsewhere using different words. In other words, you are right, often it is not translated into English exactly the same.

[Perry]

I know nothing of Strong's Concordance. But I do read the Old Testament in the original Hebrew, and often chant from the Torah (the first five books) in Synagogue.

Tapucha, is the overturning or upsetting of something.

Patel (more often hitpatel), is the twisting and turning of something.

[skinem]

Wow, scw, I thought I might be the only Strong's Concordance user left in America! Unlike Perry, I need it to compare English translations with the original Hebrew and Greek. Pretty useful book.

[gailr]

Froward remained alongside fromward "thence, away from" though both words are used far less often today than they deserve.

Fromward.

Now, there's a word you don't hear in everyday conversation. Those of you cantankered by the phrase "going forward" (and you know who you are) could perversely respond with a "fromward" in those staff meetings. Intone it with a Darth Earl Jones menace for best effect.

-gailr