Definition
A preposition carrying spatial, relational, or purposive meaning. In most legal contexts, "toward" functions as it does in ordinary English — indicating direction, proximity, or orientation. However, in a specific historical and statutory application, courts have interpreted "toward" to mean not "to" (i.e., addressed directly at a person) but rather "about" or "respecting" — that is, concerning a person rather than speaking in their presence or to their face.
This interpretive distinction arose in the context of statutes prohibiting insulting language "toward a female relation." Texas courts held that such language need not be spoken directly to the woman but is actionable when spoken about or in reference to her. The word thus carries broader reach than its surface meaning might suggest in these statutory contexts.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): In the direction of; in relation to someone or something; for the purpose of attaining an aim; located close to a time or place.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): Approaching; coming near. Also, ready to do or learn; compliant; apt; docile — as in "a toward youth." Additionally, forward or bold in action.
The gap worth noting: Ordinary usage of "toward" implies directionality — movement or orientation pointing at something. The legal interpretation in insult statutes inverts this intuition, holding that "toward a person" can mean "about a person," even in their absence. A researcher reading such a statute with only common-language assumptions would underestimate the statute's reach.
Common Confusion
"Toward" and "to" are frequently treated as interchangeable in legal drafting, but courts have distinguished them. "To" implies direct address or transmission — something delivered or spoken at a person. "Toward" has been construed more expansively to encompass statements made in reference to a person without requiring that person's presence or receipt. This distinction is narrow but consequential in defamation-adjacent and criminal insult statutes.
Why It Matters in Research
Researchers working with 19th-century penal codes — particularly those governing conduct "toward" women, minors, or protected classes — should not read "toward" as synonymous with "to." The Texas appellate holding referenced in both Bouvier and Anderson reflects a deliberate judicial expansion of statutory reach, and similar reasoning may appear in other jurisdictions' case law interpreting analogous statutes.
When canvassing historical sources for the meaning of "toward" in a given statute, the corpus will often yield the insult-statute context as the primary legal gloss. Researchers should be alert to whether that gloss was adopted in other contexts or remained limited to the specific offense. The word's legal treatment is not uniform across subject matters.
Modern statutory drafting has largely displaced this ambiguity by using more precise language ("about," "concerning," "in relation to"), but legacy statutes and their interpretive progeny may still carry the broader construction. When encountering "toward" in any pre-20th-century criminal or civil statute, treat it as a term that may require judicial construction rather than plain-meaning reading.
Historical Dictionary Support
Anderson and Bouvier are in full agreement here, and Bouvier's entry explicitly cites the Texas authority (6 Tex. Ap. 575) that Anderson implies. Both dictionaries cross-reference "To," indicating that the entries work in tandem: "To" likely addresses the narrower directional meaning, while "Toward" captures the broader relational interpretation.
What neither source does is address the purposive or temporal senses of "toward" (as in "toward achieving a remedy" or "toward the end of the limitations period"), which appear in legal writing without controversy. The historical dictionaries are narrowly focused on the insult-statute context — a useful specificity, but one that should not be taken as exhaustive of the word's legal uses.
Webster's 1913 preserves a now-archaic adjectival sense ("a toward youth" meaning tractable or apt) that has no surviving legal application. Researchers encountering this usage in older legal prose — particularly in descriptions of parties, wards, or apprentices — should recognize it as a character description, not a directional or relational term.
Jurisdictional Note
The judicial construction of "toward" as meaning "about" or "respecting" is documented in Texas appellate authority. Whether other jurisdictions adopted identical reasoning depends on their own statutory language and case law. Researchers should not assume the Texas gloss applies universally without checking jurisdiction-specific sources.