Vaward

Part of speech: noun, adjective

Definitions

1. The leading front section of a marching army or moving column, sometimes called the vanguard
2. An archaic term for the foremost division of a military force, positioned ahead of the main body
3. The advance portion of an army, the part that moves or fights at the very front of the troops

Etymology: "Vaward" is a word most readers have never met, yet it is a near twin of "vanguard," and the two came into English by different routes. Its ancestor is the French phrase "avant-garde," literally "before the guard," the troops sent ahead of an army to watch for danger. English took the phrase in the Middle Ages, and over time the French word shifted in form: it became "avantwarde" in Anglo-Norman, and then "vantwarde" in Middle English, where a dropped opening syllable produced the shorter shape "vaward." Because "vaward" descends from the same French phrase as "vanguard" and "avant-garde," the three are doublets: separate English forms of one source. "Vanguard" kept the fuller shape and the military sense of the front of an army, while "vaward" lingered in English for a time as an alternative form before falling out of use.

Synonyms: vanguard, forefront, van

Antonyms: rear, rearguard