antedating of "clock wise" (1882)

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On Mon, 11 Jul 2005 04:04:40 -0700, Jonathan Lighter
<wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM> wrote:

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

"Right-handed" was also available (as in Sam's citation below), but OED
only dates the rotational sense to 1825. Besides "deasil", there was also
"with the sun" (1769), "sunways" (1774), and the earlier Scottish
expression "sungates" (1597).

The good ol' Maven discusses deasil/widdershins here:

http://www.randomhouse.com/wotd/index.pperl?date=19970226

The Maven notes that the path of the sun is left-to-right *when facing
south*. As Larry suggests, this is the default orientation (austration?)
for those in the Northern Hemisphere because the sun is in the south at
midday (cf. "meridian", from Latin "meridianum", meaning either 'midday'
or 'south').

--Ben Zimmer


>Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU> wrote:
>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?