# "Foreward" not "Foreword"?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foreward-not-foreword/380716>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [November 16, 2006, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foreward-not-foreword/380716 "2006-11-16T18:22:47Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Quasimodem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Quasimodem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quasimodem)\
**Post date:** [November 16, 2006, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foreward-not-foreword/380716/1 "2006-11-16T18:22:47Z")

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Mea Culpa if this has been asked (I did a search, but nothing jumped out), but why the difference?

Hawking uses it in his _A Brief History of Time_ .

Thanks

Q

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**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\
**Post date:** [November 16, 2006, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foreward-not-foreword/380716/2 "2006-11-16T19:02:11Z")

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For the opening section of the book?? Odd.

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**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\
**Post date:** [November 16, 2006, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foreward-not-foreword/380716/3 "2006-11-16T19:35:49Z")

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From a [dictionary website:](http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/foreward)

> [@](#):
>
> foreward
> 
> \Fore"ward`, n. The van; the front. [Obs.]
> 
> My foreward shall be drawn out all in length, Consisting equally of horse and foot. --Shak.
> 
> Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.

So it is a real word, and could arguably apply to the introduction to a book; but that would be a very bad choice, IMO, when we have a more exact one in “foreword”. The use of “foreward” in that context, whenever you see it, was probably not a choice at all but a mistake or misprint.

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**Author:** ![Gordon\_Urquhart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/db5fbb/32.png) [@Gordon\_Urquhart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gordon_Urquhart)\
**Post date:** [November 16, 2006, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foreward-not-foreword/380716/4 "2006-11-16T19:47:28Z")

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This is a guess, but it might be a sly intentional misprint that alludes to the foreward progress of time.

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**Author:** ![MrSquishy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b9e5f3/32.png) [@MrSquishy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrSquishy)\
**Post date:** [November 16, 2006, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foreward-not-foreword/380716/5 "2006-11-16T19:47:38Z")

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[QUOTE=BrainGlutton]

So it is a real word, and could arguably apply to the introduction to a book; but that would be a very bad choice, IMO, when we have a more exact one in “foreword”. The use of “foreward” in that context, whenever you see it, was probably not a choice at all but a mistake or misprint.  
[/QUOTE]  
Maybe he thought it was a clever play on words (combining foreword/forward)?

I don’t, but maybe he did. 🙂

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**Author:** ![Quasimodem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Quasimodem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quasimodem)\
**Post date:** [November 16, 2006, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/foreward-not-foreword/380716/6 "2006-11-16T20:06:08Z")

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I have noticed this in other works as well, not just his.

Maybe it’s a British “Thang”, and we wouldn’t understand? 😃

Q