Toward the ground; downward (primarily British English variant).
From ground + -wards (Old English '-weardas,' variant plural/adverbial form of '-weard'). Both -ward and -wards exist as variants, with -wards more common in British English.
The -wards variant (as in backwards, towards) is slowly disappearing in favor of -ward in American English, but British English won't let go—it's a small linguistic tug-of-war that's been happening for centuries.
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