different between thwart vs baffle

English

Etymology

The adjective is derived from Early Middle English thwert, thwerte, thuart, thurt, thurte, thwart, thwarte, twart, twarte, twhart, twhert, twort, þuert, þwerrt, þwert, þwerte, ðwert (“crosswise, transverse; counter, opposing; contrary, obstinate”), borrowed from Old Norse þvert (“across, athwart”), originally the neuter form of þverr (“across, transverse”), from Proto-Germanic *þwerhaz (“cross; adverse”) (altered or influenced by Proto-Germanic *þweran? (“to stir; to swirl; to turn”)), from Proto-Germanic *þerh-, probably from Proto-Indo-European *terk?- (“to spin; to turn”).

The English adjective is cognate with Danish tvær (“sullen, sulky”), Gothic ???????????????????????? (þwairs, “angry”), Middle Dutch dwers, dwars (modern Dutch dwars (“crosswise, transverse; slantwise, askew; stubbornly disobedient”)), Norwegian tvert, tvært, Old Frisian þweres, dwers (Saterland Frisian twars, West Frisian dwers, dwerz (“across, to the other side of; beyond”)), Middle Low German dwers, dwars (Low German dwars (“contrary; cross-grained”)), Old English þweorh (“transverse; perverse; angry, cross”), Old High German twer (Middle High German twer, quer, modern German quer (“crosswise; cross”)), Swedish tvär (“across, transverse; of a curve: sharp; immediate, sudden; grumpy, stubborn”). It is related to queer.

The adverb is derived from Middle English thwert, ywerte (“crosswise; across the grain”); the Middle English Dictionary suggests the adverb was derived from the adjective, while the Oxford English Dictionary notes that the adverb is attested earlier than the adjective.

The verb is derived from Middle English thwerten, thwert, thwarten, þwerten (“to lie across; to oppose, to thwart”), and further from the adverb and perhaps also the adjective.

Noun sense 1 (“a seat across a boat on which a rower may sit”) may be derived from the adverb or adjective, from the position of the seat across the length of the boat, while noun sense 3 (“(rare) an act of thwarting”) is derived from the verb. Compare Middle English thwert (“in in thwert: crosswise”), from the adjective.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?w??t/
• (General American) enPR: thwôrt, IPA^(key): /?w?(?)?t/
• Rhymes: -??(r)t

Adjective

thwart (comparative more thwart, superlative most thwart)

1. Placed or situated across something else; cross, oblique, transverse.
2. (figuratively, dated) Of people: having a tendency to oppose; obstinate, perverse, stubborn.

   Synonyms: cross-grained, froward; see also Thesaurus:obstinate
3. (figuratively, dated) Of situations or things: adverse, unfavourable, unlucky.

   Synonyms: unpropitious, untoward; see also Thesaurus:unlucky

Derived terms

• athwart
• athwartship, athwartships

Related terms

• overthwart
• overthwartly
• overthwartness

Translations

Adverb

thwart (not comparable)

1. (obsolete) Across the direction of travel or length of; athwart, crosswise, obliquely, transversely.

Translations

Preposition

thwart

1. (archaic or poetic) Across, athwart.

Verb

thwart (third-person singular simple present thwarts, present participle thwarting, simple past and past participle thwarted)

1. (transitive) To cause to fail; to frustrate, to prevent.

   Synonyms: balk, foil, spoil

   Antonym: promote
2. (transitive, obsolete) To place (something) across (another thing); to position crosswise.
3. (transitive, also figuratively, obsolete) To hinder or obstruct by placing (something) in the way of; to block, to impede, to oppose.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:hinder

4. (transitive, intransitive, obsolete) To move (something) across or counter to; to cross.

Conjugation

Derived terms

• thwarter
• thwartsome

Translations

Noun

thwart (plural thwarts)

1. (nautical) A seat across a boat on which a rower may sit.

   Synonyms: thaught, thawt, (Britain, dialectal) thoft
2. (nautical) A brace, perpendicular to the keel, that helps maintain the beam (“breadth”) of a marine vessel against external water pressure and that may serve to support the rail.
3. (rare) An act of thwarting; something which thwarts; a hindrance, an obstacle.

Translations

References

Further reading

• thwart on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

English

Alternative forms

• bafful, baffol (both obsolete)

Etymology

Origin uncertain. Perhaps related to French bafouer (“to scorn”) or obsolete French befer (“to mock”), via Scots bauchle (“to disgrace”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?bæfl?/
• Hyphenation: baf?fle
• Rhymes: -æf?l

Verb

baffle (third-person singular simple present baffles, present participle baffling, simple past and past participle baffled)

1. (obsolete) To publicly disgrace, especially of a recreant knight. [16th-17th c.]
   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, VI.7:

     He by the heeles him hung upon a tree, / And baffuld so, that all which passed by / The picture of his punishment might see […].

2. (obsolete) To hoodwink or deceive (someone). [16th-18th c.]
   • a. 1677, Isaac Barrow, The Duty of Prayer (sermon)

     pretences to baffle with his goodness

3. To bewilder completely; to confuse or perplex. [from 17th c.]

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:confuse

   • 1843, William H. Prescott, The History of the Conquest of Mexico

     computations, so difficult as to have baffled, till a comparatively recent period, the most enlightened nations

   • Every abstruse problem, every intricate question will not baffle, discourage or break it [the mind]

4. (now rare) To foil; to thwart. [from 17th c.]
   • 1798, William Cowper, On the Receipt of My Mother's Picture

     the art that baffles time's tyrannic claim

   • a suitable scripture ready to repel and baffle them all

   • 1915, Edward Plunkett, Lord Dunsany, Fifty-One Tales

     So they had to search the world again for a sphinx. And still there was none. But they were not men that it is easy to baffle, and at last they found a sphinx in a desert at evening watching a ruined temple whose gods she had eaten hundreds of years ago when her hunger was on her.

5. (intransitive) To struggle in vain. [from 19th c.]

Translations

Derived terms

• bafflegab

Noun

baffle (plural baffles)

1. A device used to dampen the effects of such things as sound, light, or fluid. Specifically, a baffle is a surface which is placed inside an open area to inhibit direct motion from one part to another, without preventing motion altogether.

2. An architectural feature designed to confuse enemies or make them vulnerable.
3. (US, dialect, coal mining) A lever for operating the throttle valve of a winding engine.

Descendants

• ? French: baffle
• ? Spanish: bafle

Translations

Further reading

• “baffle”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–present.

References

French

Etymology

Borrowed from English baffle.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bafl/

Noun

baffle m or f (plural baffles)

1. speaker (audio)

   Synonym: haut-parleur