Word of the Day Archive
Wednesday May 18, 2005
untoward \uhn-TORD\ , adjective:
1. Not favorable or fortunate; adverse.
2. Improper; unseemly.
3. Hard to guide, work with, or control; unruly.
If a candidate drug outperforms a placebo in two independent studies, and if it does so without untoward side effects, the FDA will approve it for use.
-- Gary Greenberg, "Is it prozac? Or placebo?", Mother Jones, November/December 2003
During the trip, I was virtually alone with my unarmed driver for long stretches in places where officials in the capital of Sana'a had told me abductions were likely. Yet nothing untoward happened.
-- Robert D Kaplan, "Get me to Vukovar", Columbia Journalism Review, September/October 2004
For the vast majority of untoward behaviors labeled as mental illness, Szasz contends that they are freely chosen behaviors for which the agent must take responsibility; psychiatry tends to ascribe responsibility for only socially-approved actions.
-- Richard E. Vatz, "The quandary over mental illness", USA Today, November 1, 2004
And despite your indignant protestations to the contrary, there was nothing unethical, unsafe or otherwise untoward about Gordon's pass.
-- Lee Spencer, "No reason to see red over pass on yellow", Sporting News, July 7, 2003
Untoward comes from un- + Middle English toward, from Old English toweard, "facing, imminent," from to, "to" + -weard, "-ward."
Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation for untoward
