Toward some other place or direction; in another direction.
A combination of 'else' (otherwise) and '-wards' (a suffix meaning 'toward' or 'in the direction of,' from Old English 'weard'), creating an archaic or dialectal directional adverb.
The '-wards' suffix gave English speakers like Chaucer the power to point any direction—homewards, onwards, backwards—and combining it with 'else' shows how creative speakers once were before modern English standardized our direction words.
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