tofore (prep.)

Old English fore (prep.) "before, in front of, in presence of; because of, for the sake of; earlier in time; instead of;" as an adverb, "before, previously, formerly, once," from Proto-Germanic *fura "before" (source also of Old Saxon fora, Old Frisian fara, Old High German fora, German vor, Danish for, Old Norse fyrr, Gothic faiura "for"), from PIE *prae-, extended form of root *per- (1) "forward," hence "in front of, before."

Now displaced by before. In nautical use, "toward the bows of the ship." Merged from 13c. with the abbreviated forms of afore and before and thus formerly often written 'fore. As a noun, "the front," from 1630s. The warning cry in golf is first recorded 1878, probably a contraction of before.

word-forming element of Anglo-Saxon origin, expressing motion, direction, addition; not properly a prefix but the preposition to merged with the following word. This was common in Middle English (to-hear "listen to," to-knit "bind up," to-cast "add together," tocome "arrive, occur, happen;" to-put "affix," to-set, to-stick, to-yield "give up," etc.), but few survive: to-do, together, and time references such as today, tonight, tomorrow — Chaucer also has to-yeere.

Also compare Middle English towhile (conj., adv.) "for as long as; in the meantime." But in toward, to is the principal element, and -ward is the suffix.