Widdershins

For other uses, see Widdershins (disambiguation).
The anticlockwise or counterclockwise direction

Widdershins (sometimes withershins, widershins or widderschynnes) is a term meaning to go counter-clockwise, anti-clockwise, or lefthandwise, or to walk around an object by always keeping it on the left. Literally, it means to take a course opposite the apparent motion of the sun viewed from the Northern Hemisphere (the face of this imaginary clock is the ground the viewer stands upon).[1] The earliest recorded use of the word, as cited by the Oxford English Dictionary, is in a 1513 translation of the Aeneid, where it is found in the phrase "Abaisit I wolx, and widdersyns start my hair." In this sense, "widdershins start my hair" means "my hair stood on end".[2]

The use of the word also means "in a direction opposite to the usual" and "in a direction contrary to the apparent course of the sun". It is cognate with the German language widersinnig, i.e., "against" + "sense". The term "widdershins" was especially common in Lowland Scots.[2]

The opposite of widdershins is deosil, or sunwise, meaning "clockwise".

  1. ^ Ellis, Peter (1994-06-23). Dictionary of Celtic Mythology. USA: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-508961-5.
  2. ^ a b "withershins | widdershins, adv.". OED Online. Oxford University Press. June 2017. Retrieved 6 September 2017.