To and fro

[Vort]

This morning's thought train while reading scriptures during my daughter's seminary class:

The word "toward" is obviously "to-ward". If I say Santa's workshop lies northward, that means it lies to the north. Similarly, the words "southward", "eastward", and "westward" mean, respectively, "to the south", "to the east", and "to the west". In other words, "southward" means in the direction of south. So "to-ward" very obviously means in the direction to something. [Btw, this is an old, familiar thought, just retreading well-known ground. I looked up "toward" later on and was gratified to find that I had been mostly right. The next part was the new thought.]

Hmm. If we have a word "to-ward", we probably have a word "from-ward", meaning in the direction away from something. I bet that's what "froward" means! That's a word I remember mostly from Psalms and Proverbs, but it was also used by Peter and in a few other places. Inferring the meaning from context seemed to indicate that "froward" meant "wicked" or "wandering" or "unfaithful". That is perfectly consistent with "in the direction away from [God]." Only we don't use "froward" any more like we use "toward", and haven't for many generations; the word appears to have taken its figurative meaning as its only (modern) meaning. How cool is that!

Later, in the shower, I was thinking about this, and started thinking about this topic again:

"From" is the opposite of "to". But "away" is what I would think of as the opposite of "toward". So therefore..."awayward"...hey, look at that! "Wayward"!

I thought that was so cool that I'd share it with my friends at MormonHub.

Bonus thought: Why do we have the phrase "to and fro"? Obviously it means "to and from", so its meaning is clear. But why "fro"? Where's the missing "m"? Aha! I bet I know! I bet "to" used to be pronounced as a homophone to "toe" and "tow", and "from" was pronounced with that same "o" sound. So "to and from" was almost a rhyme. And dropping a letter here and there is an ancient and honorable tradition in English ("O'er the fields we go!"). So "to and fro", pronounced "toe and froe", simply sounded too good to pass up, and it got baked into the language so firmly that it survives even after our pronunciation of the phrase has drifted.

[MrShorty]

I don't think I really know, either. A couple of the online dictionary sites note in the derivation of fro that there was a Middle English word fro or fra that was synonymous with from, so perhaps it is, as you say, a poetic holdover of an otherwise archaic word.

I also want to (sarcastically) thank you for getting "That's What Makes the World Go 'Round" from Disney's "The Sword in the Stone" stuck in my head. Now I'm going to be humming "To and fro. Stop and go. That's what makes The world go 'round." for the rest of the day. Don't ask me where these things come from. I haven't seen the movie in years, but I saw your post title and immediately the song popped into my head and got stuck on endless loop.

[Guest]

"Fro" comes from the Scottish side.  "From" comes from the Germanic Old English.  They were considered cognates.  So, obviously one influenced the other.  But no idea which was the original.  Today's English uses both.  Though obviously "fro" has limited usage.

I'd personally suspect that the "from" was the original since people easily drop a terminal "m" in fast speech -- especially when migrating to another language.  Not too common to add such.

Edited December 14, 2017 by Guest

[Still_Small_Voice]

2 hours ago, MrShorty said:

I also want to (sarcastically) thank you for getting "That's What Makes the World Go 'Round" from Disney's "The Sword in the Stone" stuck in my head. Now I'm going to be humming "To and fro. Stop and go. That's what makes The world go 'round." for the rest of the day. Don't ask me where these things come from. I haven't seen the movie in years, but I saw your post title and immediately the song popped into my head and got stuck on endless loop.

I love that song.  I also really liked "The Sword in the Stone" movie as well.  Merlin always wanting to use his magic for something useful.