Homeward means towards where you live. Homeward bound, the homeward journey, turn homeward.
Homeward bound is the fixed phrase and the one everybody knows. Studies find the way back feels shorter than the way out, even at the same speed, which is called the return trip effect and is about attention rather than time.
1adverbhomewardTowards where you live.
“After a long day at the market, the farmers headed homeward in the dark.”
homeward is a direction.
Old English hamweard, home plus -ward, an ending marking direction.
Proto-Germanic
*haimawarda
Old English
hāmweard
Middle English
homward
English, today
homeward
From Middle English homward, from Old English hāmweard, from Proto-Germanic haimawarda, equivalent to home + ward. Cognate with Dutch heimwaarts, German heimwärts (“homeward”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA