antedating of "clock wise" (1882)

[Jonathan Lighter]

"Rotating from the left to the right" would have been clear enough, I think.  Was "clock-wise" a 19th C. SOTA ?

JL

Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU> wrote:
---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
Sender: American Dialect Society
Poster: Laurence Horn
Subject: Re: antedating of "clock wise" (1882)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

At 9:48 AM -0400 7/10/05, Sam Clements wrote:
>OED and M-W both have 1888.
>
>>>From APS online _American Journal of Science_ June 1882; 23,138, p.460
>
> "When the rotation of the plane of polarization appears
>clock-wise to the observer, it has the character of a left-handed
>screw. But the circularly polarized ray to which Vr relates, the
>rotation of which also appears clock-wise to the observer, has the
>character of a right-handed screw."
>
>The article was about circular polarization. There are other cites
>between 1882 and 1888 for clock-wise, and all used in scientif
>papers, as was the 1888 one on hurricanes.
>
>Sam Clements
>
>I guess a scientist just needed a term which more efficiently
>described a motion that could only be indicated with hand gestures.

Well, there were other terms around, in fact two of my favorite
words, which while not referring directly to clocks, could describe
(more or less) the same concept. Some excerpts from the relevant OED
entries:

deasil

'Righthandwise, towards the right; motion with continuous turning to
the right, as in going round an object with the right hand towards
it, or in the same direction as the hands of a clock, or the apparent
course of the sun (a practice held auspicious by the Celts)'

and

withershins, widdershins

adverb
2. In a direction contrary to the apparent course of the sun
(considered as unlucky or causing disaster).

adjective
'Moving in an anticlockwise direction, contrary to the apparent
course of the sun (considered as unlucky or sinister); unlucky,
ill-fated, relating to the occult.'

Curiously, cites for the former only go back to the 18th century,
while those for the latter go back to the 16th. The former is of
Celtic derivation--

[Gaelic deiseil (deiseal, deasal) adj. and adv., righthandwise,
turned toward the right, dextrorsum, f. deas right hand, south, in
OIr. dess, des, Welsh dehau, cognate with Lat. dex-ter, Gk...]

--and the latter Germanic

[a. MLG. weddersin(ne)s (cf. wedersins 'contrario modo', Kilian), a.
MHG. widersinnes, f. wider- WITHER-1 + gen. of sin (esp. MG.) = sind,
sint way, direction (see SITHE n.1): cf. MHG. widersinnen to return.
In sense 2 associated with son, SUN n.1]

One question that I've always wondered about is whether the
referential meanings of "deasil" and "clockwise" (and similarly those
of "widdershins" and "counter-clockwise") converge only in the
Northern Hemisphere, given the difference in the apparent course of
the sun down under. Any 17th century antipodeans around to offer
informant judgments?

Larry


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