Word of the Day for 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?" [1]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 [2]Sana'a had told me abductions were likely. Yet nothing untoward happened. --Robert D Kaplan, "'Get me to Vukovar,"' [3]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," [4]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," [5]Sporting News, July 7, 2003 _________________________________________________________ Untoward comes from un- + Middle English toward, from Old English toweard, "facing, imminent," from to, "to" + -weard, "-ward." References 1. http://www.motherjones.com/ 2. http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=Sana%27a 3. http://www.cjr.org/ 4. http://www.usatoday.com/ 5. http://www.sportingnews.com/ Dictionary.com Entry and Pronunciation http://dictionary.reference.com/search?r=9&q=untoward