Eschew

Eschew \es-CHOO\ , transitive verb;
1. To shun; to avoid (as something wrong or distasteful)

This word dates to the mid-14th century and comes from Old French eschiver ("shun, eschew, avoid, dispense with." Eschiver is from Frankish *skiuhan ("dread, avoid, shun"), which derives from Proto-Germanic *skeukhwaz. That word is also the forebear of shy via late Old English sceoh ("shy").

Perhaps unsurprisingly eschew is related to skew, which dates to the late 15th century from eschiver via Old North French eskiuer ("shy away from, avoid").

Today's word and the first definition were both taken from Dictionary.com's 'Word of the Day' for Wednesday, March 23
Etymologies come from the Oxford English Dictionary and/or Etymonline.com