Feoward

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. Archaic term meaning at the very end of a sequence or period, or eventually and in the final outcome
2. An obsolete English word for finally or at the close of something, referring to the last stage of a process
3. Used in older English to mean in the end, ultimately, or as the final result after everything else has happened

Etymology: Feoward is an Old English word meaning "hostile" or "perfidious," and it is the ancestor of the modern "froward," though the two are not the same word in the way they look. The Old English form was built from "fēond," "enemy," plus the suffix "-weard," "turned toward," so the literal sense is something like "turned toward the enemy" or "inclined toward enmity." That compound makes sense in a world where "fēond" was a common word for a foe, and the same root gave us "fiend." Over time the word softened in both spelling and sense. Middle English writers used "froward" for someone who was contrary, obstinate, or difficult to deal with, and the sense of open hostility faded into stubbornness and perversity. Shakespeare and his contemporaries still used it in that sense, and the word lingered in literary and archaic English long after most speakers stopped using it in daily speech. The word "froward" survives mainly in older writing and in phrases about stubbornness, and it is a good example of how an Old English word for an enemy can end up describing a person who simply will not give way.