athwart
Language: English
Part of speech: prep
Pronunciation: ipa: /əˈθwɔːt/
ipa: /əˈθwɔɹt/
rhymes: -ɔː(ɹ)t
Etymology: 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”)
Senses: examples: text: The stars moved slowly athwart the sky.
text: Knit vvith a golden bauldricke, vvhich forelay / Athvvart her ſnovvy breſt, and did diuide / Her daintie paps; […]
ref: 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto III”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 29, page 226:
text: Did neuer Sonnet for her ſake compile, / Nor neuer lay his vvreathed armes athvvart / His louing boſome, to keepe dovvne his hart.
ref: c. 1595–1596 (date written), W. Shakespere [i.e., William Shakespeare], A Pleasant Conceited Comedie Called, Loues Labors Lost. […] (First Quarto), London: […] W[illiam] W[hite] for Cut[h]bert Burby, published 1598, →OCLC; republished as Shakspere’s Loves Labours Lost (Shakspere-Quarto Facsimiles; no. 5), London: W[illiam] Griggs, […], [1880], →OCLC, [Act IV, scene iii]:
text: Ye knovv the ſpheres and various taſks aſſign'd / By lavvs eternal to th' aërial kind. / […] / Some leſs refin'd, beneath the moon's pale light / Purſue the ſtars that ſhoot athvvart the night, […]
ref: 1736, Alexander Pope, “The Rape of the Lock […]”, in The Works of Alexander Pope Esq. […], volume I, London: […] J[ohn] and P[aul] Knapton, H. Lintot, J[acob] and R[ichard] Tonson, and S. Draper, published 1751, →OCLC, canto II, page 142, lines 75–76 and 81–82:
text: But oh that deep romantic chasm which slanted / Down the green hill athwart a cedarn cover! / A savage place! as holy and inchanted / As e'er beneath a waning moon was haunted / By woman wailing for her demon-lover!
ref: 1797, S[amuel] T[aylor] Coleridge, “Kubla Khan: Or A Vision in a Dream”, in Christabel: Kubla Khan, a Vision: The Pains of Sleep, London: […] John Murray, […], by William Bulmer and Co. […], published 1816, →OCLC, page 56:
text: At eve the beetle boometh / Athwart the thicket lone.
ref: 1842, Alfred Tennyson, “Claribel. A Melody.”, in Poems. […], volume I, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 3:
text: Breezes blowing from beds of iris quickened her breath with their perfume; she saw the tufted lilacs sway in the wind, and the streamers of mauve-tinted wistaria swinging, all a-glisten with golden bees; she saw a crimson cardinal winging through the foliage, and amorous tanagers flashing like scarlet flames athwart the pines.
ref: 1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, “Afterglow”, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC, page 168:
topics: nautical
transport
synonyms: word: overthwart
glosses: From one side to the other side of; across.
examples: text: For here our ſouls hath but one eye (the Apoſtle ſaith, vve knovv in part) be not proud if that chance to come athvvart thy ſeeing ſide, vvhich meets with the blind ſide of another.
ref: 1642, Thomas Fuller, “The True Church Antiquary”, in The Holy State, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: […] Roger Daniel for John Williams, […], →OCLC, book II, paragraph 5, page 71:
text: O Years! the blest preeminence of Saints! / Ye sweep athwart my gaze, so heavenly-bright, […]
ref: 1794 December 24 (date written), S[amuel] T[aylor] Coleridge, “Religious Musings. A Desultory Poem, Written on the Christmas Eve of 1794.”, in Poems, […], 2nd edition, London: […] N. Briggs, for J[oseph] Cottle, […], and Messrs. Robinsons, […], published 1797, →OCLC, page 145, lines 383–384:
topics: nautical
transport
glosses: Across the course or path of, so as to meet; hence (figuratively), to the attention of.
examples: text: VVhence and vvhat art thou, execrable ſhape, / That dar'ſt, though grim and terrible, advance / Thy miſcreated Front athvvart my vvay / To yonder Gates?
ref: 1667, John Milton, “Book II”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC, lines 681–684:
text: Lookée, you lubberly ſon of a vv——e, if you come athvvart me, 'vvare your ginger-bread-vvork.
ref: 1748, [Tobias Smollett], chapter III, in The Adventures of Roderick Random. […], volume I, London: […] [William Strahan] for J[ohn] Osborn […], →OCLC, page 14:
text: It is the voice of human experience within us, judging and condemning all gods that stand athwart the pathway along which it feels itself to be advancing.
ref: 1902, William James, “Lectures XIV and XV: The Value of Saintliness”, in The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature […] , New York, N.Y.; London: Longmans, Green, and Co. […], →OCLC, page 330:
text: The new fashions were perforce addressed to the more prosperous young: the children of Europe’s white middle-class, who could afford records, concerts, shoes, clothes, make-up and modish hair-styling. But the presentation of these wares cut ostentatiously athwart conventional lines.
ref: 2005, Tony Judt, “The Spectre of Revolution”, in Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945, New York, N.Y.: The Penguin Press, →ISBN, page 395:
topics: nautical
transport
glosses: Across the course or path of, so as to oppose.
examples: text: And novv, athvvart the Terrors that thy Vovv / Has planted round thee, thou appear'ſt more fair, / More amiable, and riſeſt in thy Charms.
ref: 1712 (date written), [Joseph] Addison, Cato, a Tragedy. […], London: […] J[acob] Tonson, […], published 1713, →OCLC, Act III, scene i, page 37:
text: About three in the Afternoon he came up vvith us, and bringing too by Miſtake, juſt athvvart our Quarter, inſtead of athvvart our Stern, as he intended, vve brought 8 of our Guns to bear on that Side, and pour'd in a Broadſide upon him, vvhich made him ſheer off again, after returning our Fire, and pouring in alſo his ſmall Shot from near 200 Men vvhich he had on Board.
ref: 1719 May 6 (Gregorian calendar), [Daniel Defoe], The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, […], London: […] W[illiam] Taylor […], →OCLC, page 19:
text: And should the moon happen to hit its ever-shifting orbital perigee at the same time that it lies athwart from the sun, we are treated to a so-called supermoon, a full moon that can seem close enough to embrace – as much as 12 percent bigger and 30 percent brighter than the average full moon.
ref: 2014 September 7, Natalie Angier, “The Moon comes around again [print version: Revisiting a moon that still has secrets to reveal: Supermoon revives interest in its violent origins and hidden face, International New York Times, 10 September 2014, page 8]”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 22 Jun 2022:
topics: nautical
transport
glosses: Across; through.
examples: text: I have ſeen this preſent vvork, and finde nothing athvvart the Catholick faith and good manners: […]
ref: 1644, John Milton, Areopagitica; a Speech of Mr. John Milton for the Liberty of Unlicenc’d Printing, to the Parlament of England, London: [s.n.], →OCLC, page 8:
text: [S]he, athwart many impediments, An ardent rider, often on horseback, at paces furiously swift; her beautiful face tanned by the weather. Very devout too; honest to be bone, athwart all her prejudices.
ref: 1862, Thomas Carlyle, “Carnival Phenomena in War-time”, in History of Friedrich II. of Prussia, Called Frederick the Great, volume III, London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC, book XIV, pages 645–646:
topics: nautical
transport
glosses: Opposed to.
examples: text: The damaged mainmast fell athwart the deck, destroying the ship’s boat.
text: [H]e [a boat] come right athwart the steamer's bows and she cut him in two.
ref: 1864 May – 1865 November, Charles Dickens, “The Same Respected Friend in More Aspects than One”, in Our Mutual Friend. […], volume II, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1865, →OCLC, book the third (A Long Lane), page 19:
topics: nautical
transport
glosses: Across the line of a ship's course, or across its deck.
Derived terms: athwartship
athwartships
athwartwise