[Loch-Ruadh] Word for the day

[Jane Sitton]

The Word of the Day for October 18 is:

widdershins * \WIH-der-shinz\ * (adverb):  in a left-handed, wrong, or
contrary direction:  counterclockwise

Example sentence:

"He turned to his right, knowing that it is unlucky to walk about a
church widdershins." (Dorothy Sayers, The Nine Tailors)

Did you know?

Legend holds that demons always approached the devil widdershins.  Not
surprisingly, such a path was considered evil and unlucky.  By the
mid-1500s, English speakers had adopted "widdershins" (from the Middle High
German "wider," meaning "back, against," and "sinnen," meaning "to travel")
for anything following a path opposite to the direction the sun travels
across the sky (that is, counterclockwise).  But in its earliest known uses,
"widdershins" was far less malignant; it was used simply to describe a case
of bad hair in which unruly locks stood on end or fell the wrong way.

See, they don't ALL come from French via Latin!

Madelina