In many englishsome English language user interfaces, both virtual and physical, the words back and forward andare used instead of backward and forward.
An easy example is the web browser, where the buttonbuttons to navigatednavigate the history of a tab are labelled back and forward. Why is it back and not backward?
In French, the words are "précédent" and "suivant", which means "previous" and "next" and are opposites contrary to back and forward.