937: widdershins Jul 3, 2017

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The adverb 'widdershins' mostly is used now as a synonym for 'counterclockwise'; this term has had that meaning for a few centuries, but earlier definitions included "in the opposite direction" (not just of a clock or circle) and plainly 'wrong' or 'bad'. Unlike with many other derivatives, the modern sense is in some ways closer to the original meaning, in this case from the Middle High German 'widersinnes', meaning 'against' ('wider') and 'direction ('sin') or 'travel' when the element appeared as 'sinnen'. The Middle High German 'sin' is also related to the Scots 'sin' meaning 'sun', and as it happens, 'widdershins' was often used to denote, among those other things, movement in the opposite direction as the Sun goes across the sky. The word 'sinister' also relates to the direction left historically, as well as things that are morally bad: a fairly common Western view for a long time.

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