Awke

Part of speech: verb, adjective

Definitions

1. An old or dialect spelling describing something turned the wrong way, clumsy, or perverse in manner
2. Archaic term for awkward or backhanded, often suggesting something done in an oddly clumsy or contrary way
3. Obsolete variant describing what is perverse, left-handed, or clumsy in nature

Etymology: Awke comes from Old Norse "öfugr," meaning "turned the wrong way" or "reversed," and likely reached English through contact with Norse speakers in northern England. Its earliest sense was literal: it described the left hand, the side that runs against the right-handed majority. From there it came to mean clumsy, perverse, or contrary. Its better-known relative is "awkward," formed by adding the suffix "-ward," meaning "toward," to the same root. An awkward thing was therefore one turned toward the wrong side, a meaning the older form carried in its shape.