widdershins

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“
That was the wrong way round--the unlucky, uncanonical direction; the evil way, widdershins, the opposite of sunwise.

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Examples (32)

  • Then a bell chimed three times and I sensed him circling around the table, widdershins, going against the sun. —  Yasmine Galenorn - [Sisters of the Moon 03] - Darkling
  • I truly would be delighted to see solid evidence that an approach involving dancing widdershins around the chalice and athame during the full moon, and performing the Great Rite would assist a patient with a set of symptoms, but I may also recognize that is not subject to scientific proof. —  Citizendium, the Citizens' Compendium - Recent changes [en]
  • Once he built a small outdoor fire and walked around it, widdershins, for several minutes. —  Wizard
  • As the dancers faced outwards, this would mean that they moved 'widdershins', i.e. against the sun. —  The Witch-cult in Western Europe A Study in Anthropology
  • For every department your application misses, you lose a life, three lost lives amounting to disqualification When the washers are issued, however, the port-wine rule is abandoned; and the washers are despatched to you, in defiance of all the laws of superstition and tradition, "widdershins," or counter-clockwise. —  The First Hundred Thousand
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Etymologies (1)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle Low German weddersinnes, from Middle High German widersinnes : wider, back (from Old High German widar; see wi- in Indo-European roots) + sinnes, in the direction of (from sin, direction, from Old High German; see sent- in Indo-European roots).
 

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