The other day I was reading through this copy of Tyndale’s New Testament and I found the following fascinating construction in St. Mark chapter 10:

And he sayde unto them: Whosoever putteth awaye his wyfe, and maryeth another, breaketh wedlocke to herwarde.

In modern English we would generally use the phrase “toward her” or depending on our dialect, “towards her.” But here Tyndale places the -ward suffix, indicating direction, on the pronoun!

This usage seems very awkward to our modern ears.  We do use the -ward suffix regularly.  We say “upward,” “downward, “backward,” and “forward.”  It even sounds perfectly fine to say “She looked heavenward” or “He tumbled earthward.”

Tyndale’s placement of the suffix on the pronoun seems completely foreign to us.  However, a search through the Standard version of King James Bible turns up examples of “to us-ward” and “to youward.”

Ironically, the word “awkward” itself is a fabulous use of the suffix.  The word “awk” means “turned in the opposite direction, backhanded, left handed, sinister, wrong, perverse, singular, distinguished, or clumsy.  So “awkward” means literally “in a backwards or opposite direction,” making it all the more applicable to Tyndale’s use of this fascinating suffix.

Your assignment today is to try some more creative uses of -ward in your everyday speech.  Instead of saying “He shot the ball toward the basket,” why not try “He shot the ball basketward.”  Or even try to resurrect the awkward pronoun use?

[Assy-thingummy is an ongoing blog series about words and language. Browse past Assy-thingummy entries here.]

For ’tis the sport to have the enginer
Hoist with his own petar; and ‘t shall go hard
But I will delve one yard below their mines
And blow them at the moon: O, ’tis most sweet,
When in one line two crafts directly meet.

It literally means that the bomb maker (enginer) is blown up (hoist) by his own bomb (petard) and has since become an idiomatic phrase meaning that someone has fallen into their own trap.

Petard comes from the Middle French word “peter” which means “to flatulate.”  So “hoist with his own petard” is also an inter-lingual pun meaning “lifted/blown up by his own fart.“   Shakespeare’s spelling of petard without the final ‘d’ probably indicates that this bawdy pun was intentional.

In Modern French, “petard” is still used to mean fire-cracker.

So next time someone passes gas to their own chagrin or near-asphyxiation, you may properly employ the phrase “Hoist with his own petard” as a witty and appropriate comment.  But use with caution, lest you be hoist with your own petard!

Originally, Sixteen Small Stones was meant to be a place for me to write about any of my many interests and starting now I am going to return to that objective.  I will still be writing about politics and religion when I have something to say, but it will not be the only focus as it has been lately.

I love words and etymology.  I often come across fascinating words and word relationships.  Today I am introducing an onging series called “Assy-thingummy.”  The name Assy-thingummy comes from the book “The Voyage of the Dawn Treader” by C. S. Lewis:

“I’m trying to think of a limerick, “said Eustace.

“Something like this:

Some kids who played games about Narnia Got gradually balmier and balmier–”

“Well, Narnia and balmier don’t rhyme, to begin with,” said Lucy.

“It’s an assonance, “said Eustace.

“Don’t ask him what an assy-thingummy is, “said Edmund. “He’s only longing to be asked.”

So Assy-thingummy posts will be about words, word relationships, and fun word facts.  I hope you’ll enjoy them as much as I do!