athwart
Meaning
-
- From side to side, often in an oblique manner; across or over.
- Across the path of something, so as to impede progress.
- Against the anticipated or appropriate course of something; improperly, perversely, wrongly.
Synonyms
in defiance of
not smooth
Pronounced as (IPA)
/əˈθwɔːt/
Etymology
In summary
From Late Middle English athwert, athirt, from a- (prefix meaning ‘in the direction of, toward’) + thwert (“crosswise; (cooking) across the grain”, adverb). Thwert is derived from thwert (“crosswise, transverse; counter, opposing; contrary, obstinate, stubborn”, adjective), borrowed from Old Norse þvert (“across, athwart”), originally the neuter form of þverr (“across, transverse”), from Proto-Germanic *þwerhaz (“cross; adverse”) (altered or influenced by Proto-Germanic *þweraną (“to stir; to swirl; to turn”)), from Proto-Germanic *þerh-, probably from Proto-Indo-European *terkʷ- (“to spin; to turn”). The English word is analysable as a- (prefix meaning ‘in the direction of, toward’) + thwart (“placed or situated across something else”). cognates * Scots athort (“athwart”)
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Notes