widdershins
adverb

- in a direction contrary to the apparent course of the sun; counterclockwise, or lefthandwise; to walk around an object by always keeping it on the left

- in a left-handed, wrong, or contrary direction; counterclockwise — often used in contexts implying bad luck or opposition to natural order

- moving or turning in a direction opposite to the sun's apparent movement across the sky; anticlockwise; also used figuratively to mean backwards, wrong-headed, or contrary

Oxford English Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, Collins English Dictionary

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ORIGIN

The word reaches us from Middle Low German weddersinnes, which literally meant "against the way" or "in the opposite direction." This compound joined wider ("against") and sinnen ("to travel, to go"), the latter related to sind meaning "journey."

The Old High German widar is a cousin of modern German wider (against) and widersinnig (absurd, contrary to sense). The "sins" element is not, despite appearances, anything to do with moral wrongdoing; it traces back to the Proto-Germanic root: sinþaz, for "path" or "course."

The earliest recorded use in English appears in a 1513 translation of Virgil's Aeneid by the Scottish poet Gavin Douglas, in the phrase "widdersyns start my hair" — meaning "my hair stood on end." Here the word still carried its older, broader sense of "in the wrong direction" rather than its later, specific meaning of counterclockwise.

By the mid-1500s, widdershins had settled into its navigational role. It was especially common in Lowland Scots, where it described walking anticlockwise around a church — which was widely considered unlucky. In pre-Christian sun-worshipping traditions, moving against the sun's apparent path was seen as opposing the natural order — the source of the superstition.

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CLOCKWISE MOVING SHOPPERS SPEND MORE MONEY!

Notice that most supermarket and department stores are designed to lead shoppers WIDDERSHINS through their store displays. Research indicates that most people, in particular right-handers, tend to turn their heads and move to the right when entering new environments.

Fascinatingly, head turning in pre-natal and newborn babies is a predictor of whether a child will ultimately be left- or right-handed.

Interested readers should check out: Marina Kholod, et al. - “Clockwise and Anti-clockwise Directions of Customer Orientation in a Supermarket: Evidence from RFID Data” and then follow associated references.

Helga & Paul Smith

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SYNONYMS

against the course, against the current, against the grain, against the sun, anti-sunwise, anticlockwise, arsy-versy, ass-backwards, back to front, back-handed, backward(s), buck the trend, contrary, contrariwise, contrary direction, counter-sunwise, counterclockwise, defy the flow, deviating from the norm, going against the grain, going the wrong way, in reverse, in the wrong direction, inside out, left-handed, left-handwise, leftward, moonwise, on the wrong foot, out of kilter, retrograde movement, reverse direction, swimming upstream, the opposite way, the wrong way about, the wrong way round, topsy-turvy, turn things backwards, upside down, WIDDERSHINS, wrong-footed, wrongly oriented

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SMUGGLE OWAD into a conversation today, say something like:

“Do you know why IKEA is designed to move customers WIDDERSHINS through its store?”

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HERZLICHEN DANK to all readers helping me keep OWAD alive with single or monthly donations at:

https://donorbox.org/please-become-a-friend-of-owad-3

Paul Smith