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Origin and history of toward

toward(prep.)

Middle English, from Old English toweard "in the direction of," prepositional use of toweard (adj.) "coming, facing, approaching," literally "to-ward," from to (see to) + -ward. Of time, etc., "near, nearly, about," by c. 1500. Also compare toward (adj.).

toward(adj.)

Old English toweard, "forthcoming, future, yet to come," from to (see to (prep.)) + -ward. By c. 1300 as "benevolent," also "yielding, pliant," hence "docile, in a state of submission," perhaps on the notion of "aiming, intending to reach," hence "willing to learn from or serve."

Compare froward "away from," hence "turned against, disobedient; adverse, difficult," forward (adj.) "early, in front," hence in a derogatory sense "over-helpful, presumptuous, impertinent." Also compare untoward, which was in Bible translations and continues in use.

Modern toward as "favorable, propitious" is attested by 1850, marked rare in OED, and probably a back-formation from untoward. Related: Towardness; towardly "in an obliging manner" (mid-15c.); "likely to lead to a desired result" (1510s); towardliness.

Entries linking to toward

froward(adv.)

12c., froward, fraward "turned against, perverse, disobedient; peevish, petulant; adverse, difficult," as a preposition, "away from," the Northern form of Old English fromweard (see fromward), with Old Norse fra (see fro) in place of English from. Opposite of toward, it renders Latin pervertus in early translations of the Psalms, and also meant "about to depart, departing," and "doomed to die." Related: Frowardly; frowardness.

to(prep.)

Old English to, ta, te, "in the direction of, as far as (a place, state, goal)," opposite of from; also "for the purpose of, furthermore;" from West Germanic *to (source also of Old Saxon and Old Frisian to, Dutch toe, Old High German zuo, German zu "to"). Not found in Scandinavian, where the equivalent of till (prep.) is used.

This is reconstructed to be from PIE pronominal base *do- "to, toward, upward" (source also of Latin donec "as long as," Old Church Slavonic do "as far as, to," Greek suffix -dē "to, toward," Old Irish do, Lithuanian da-), from demonstrative *de-. Also see too.

English to also supplies the place of the dative in other languages. The near-universal use of to as the verbal particle with infinitives (to sleep, to dream, etc.) arose in Middle English out of the Old English dative use of to and helped shade out the Old English inflectional endings. In this use to is a mere sign, without meaning. Compare similar use of German zu, French à, de.

As an adverb of motion, direction, etc., "to a place in view, to a thing to be done," in Old English. This use was frequent in Middle English in verbal combinations where it renders Latin ad-, com-, con-, ex-, in-, ob-. As a conjunction, "until, up to the time that," by late Old English.

The distribution of verbs among at, to, with, of has been idiosyncratic and varied. Before vowels it was sometimes shortened to t'. The phrase what's it to you "how does that concern you?" (1819) is a modern form of an old question:

Huæd is ðec ðæs?

[John xxi:22, in Lindisfarne Gospel, c.950]

Used absolutely at the end of a clause. with ellipsis of infinitive (same as the proceeding clause: would do it but don't have time to), it is attested from 14c.; OED reports it "rare before 19th c.; now a frequent colloquialism."