Awkward is the feeling in a room when nobody knows what to say next. The silence after a joke that lands wrong, bumping into an ex by the frozen peas, a handshake that turns halfway into a hug.
It also describes bodies that move without grace — an awkward walk, awkward on the dance floor — and things that are simply hard to deal with: an awkward parcel to carry, an awkward question, an awkward time to phone. In Britain a person can be awkward on purpose; he is being awkward about the dates means he is making it difficult for the sake of it. The adverb is awkwardly and the noun is awkwardness, and the shape of the word trips people up: a-w-k, then w-a-r-d. Keep it apart from clumsy, which is about the body only, never about the mood in a room.
1adjectiveawkwardMaking people feel embarrassed and unsure what to say or do.~42%
“There was an awkward pause before anyone answered.”
synonyms: uncomfortable, embarrassing
2adjectiveclumsyMoving in a clumsy way, without grace.~2%
“He was tall and awkward on his feet.”
3adjectivedifficultDifficult to handle, use or deal with.~56%
“The box was an awkward shape to carry down the stairs.”
Shares are an estimate: a language model read 7 sentences found in the wild and placed 7 of them on a sense — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.
Awkward is built from awk plus -ward, the ending that points a direction, the same one in backward and homeward. Middle English aukeward meant in the wrong direction. Every awkward silence is still a thing turned the way it should not be turned.
Proto-Indo-European
*wer- — to heed, defend
Proto-Germanic
*warduz — guard, keeper
Old English
weard — keeper, watchman, guard, guardian, protector; lord, king; possessor
Middle English
warde
English
ward
English, today
awkward
From awk + -ward. From awk + ward. Compare Middle English aukeward (“in the wrong direction”). ward comes from Middle English warde, from Old English weard (“keeper, watchman, guard, guardian, protector; lord, king; possessor”), from Proto-Germanic warduz (“guard, keeper”), from Proto-Indo-European wer- (“to heed, defend”). Cognate with Dutch waard, German Wart.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA