The -ward words

The unenthusiastic security guard was leading him down a tree-lined driveway towards a distant high brick wall with a red door in it. -- The Accidental Sorcerer by K. E. Mills, pg 4.

"Of course, Milady," Sharlassa agreed, turning back towards the door, and Hanatha waved her daughter towards the window seat along the solarium's western wall. -- War Maid's Choice by David Weber, pg. 215.

First off, I want to congratulate the artist (Steve Stone) that created the cover art for The Accidental Sorcerer. I do this for two reasons: 1) many sci-fi/fantasy covers relate poorly to the content inside the pages, often getting most aspects of the character(s) wrong, often with overly-busty women that are NOT described in the text and 2) I am awed at the ability of the artist to capture in a shadowed face so many emotions and personality traits, particularly in the one eye!

Apparently, many people search online seeking clarification in the differences and usages of the words "toward" and "towards." All sites answering such questions that I found in a quick search gave, essentially, the same response: They are equivalent with differing preferences shown by various parts of the English-speaking world, the British choosing "towards," Americans "toward."

However, I believe that all of those sites have missed the main point: Why are there two words meaning the same thing? The answer, I believe, lies in all those other -ward words, such as backward, forward, rearward, afterward, etc. One example that I experienced points, I believe, to the solution. A British friend was telling me something and used the phrase "backwards and forward." Did you note that he used the 's' in one of the constructions, but not the other?

During my online searches, I ran across a website listing 69 words ending with -ward. Though some are fairly rare, many are in widespread use, with most of those having no near-twin with the -wards ending. Since I apparently could not construct a search string that took me to a website discussing the origin of the -ward ending, I am forced to hypothesize. Or, rather, to state the hypothesis that I came up with many years ago: The ending 's' in the -wards ending is an addition or affectation added after the suffix came into widespread use indicating 'in that direction.' And, it has been added to only some of the -ward words.

This inconsistency of usage is one of my pet peeves, because, to me, it indicates (yet, again) that people simply do not think about what they speak or write. My friend, when asked if he realized that he had used two different constructions on very similar words, stopped, thought, and said, "huh." I suspect that the addition of that terminal 's' was originally due to ignorance and the rest of us have to follow that pied piper.

I object. Strenuously.