Having a head or moving in a specific direction; past tense of 'head' meaning to go toward or lead.
From Old English 'heafod' meaning head, with the suffix '-ed'. The directional sense developed from the metaphor of the head leading the body, evolving to mean 'moving toward' by the 14th century.
The word 'headed' beautifully captures how we conceptualize direction through body metaphors - we don't just 'go' somewhere, we 'head' there, as if our head is pulling us forward. This same logic appears in phrases like 'headstrong' and 'ahead,' showing how central the head is to our understanding of purpose and direction.
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