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Permanent link for this word: athwart

Aug 20, 2015

This week’s theme
Adverbs

This week’s words
ad hoc
wherewith
inter alia
athwart
pro rata

Ariana at the Window
Inspired by Tennyson’s poem, Mariana:
“She drew the casement-curtain by,
And glanced athwart the glooming flats.”

Art: Arthur Hughes (1832-1915)

A.Word.A.Day

with Anu Garg

athwart

PRONUNCIATION:

(uh-THWART)

MEANING:

adverb, preposition: From side to side of; across; against.

ETYMOLOGY:

From a- (on, into, toward) + thwart, from Old Norse thvert, neuter of thverr (transverse). Earliest documented use: 1470.

USAGE:

“He shuffled athwart, keeping one eye ahead vigilantly.”
Joseph Conrad; Heart of Darkness; Blackwood’s Magazine; 1899.

See more usage examples of athwart in Vocabulary.com’s dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

I'd rather see a sermon than hear one any day; I'd rather one should walk with me than merely tell the way. -Edgar Guest, poet (20 Aug 1881-1959)

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