6 August 2018
withershins or widdershins
[with -er-shinz]
adverb, Chiefly Scot.
1. in a direction contrary to the natural one, especially contrary to the apparent course of the sun or counterclockwise: considered as unlucky or causing disaster.
Also wid·der·shins [wid-er-shinz] /ˈwɪd ərˌʃɪnz/.
Compare deasil.
Origin of withershins
1505–15; Middle Low German weddersin(ne)s, Middle High German widdersinnes, equivalent to wider (Old High German widar) opposite (see with) + sinnes, genitive of sin way, course (cognate with Old English sīth); see send1, -s1
Dictionary.com
Historical Examples
But this is telling our tale “withershins about,” as they say in Netherby.
Cleg Kelly, Arab of the City
S. R. (Samuel Rutherford) Crockett
To go ‘withershins’ seems to have been reserved for cursing and excommunication.
Balder The Beautiful, Vol. I.
Sir James George Frazer
To go round the person in the opposite direction, or “withershins,” is an evil incantation and brings ill-fortune.
The Kath Sarit Sgara
Somadeva Bhatta
A weak man like his learned brother Withershins was not a judge to keep the high-roads safe, and make crime tremble.
In a Glass Darkly, v. 1/3
Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu
Having arrived at their rendezvous, they danced round it ‘withershins’—that is, in reverse of the apparent motion of the sun.
Witch, Warlock, and Magician
William Henry Davenport Adams
Anagram
shrewish nit
whist shrine
Today’s quote
Once you ‘got’ Pop, you could never see a sign again the same way again. And once you thought Pop, you could never see America the same way again.
– Andy Warhol
On this day
6 August 1661 – Holland sells Brazil to Portugal for 8 million guilders.
6 August 1806 – The Holy Roman Empire comes to an inglorious end at the hands of Napoleon.
6 August 1928 – birth of Andy Warhol. (Born Andrew Warhola). American artist who was a pioneer of pop art. American writer, Gore Vidal, once said, ‘Andy Warhol is the only genius I’ve ever known with an IQ of 60‘. Died 22 February 1987.
6 August 1945 – USA drops an atomic bomb, called ‘Little Boy’ on Hiroshima, Japan. It is estimated that between 70,000 to 140,000 people died within the four months of the bombing, with half that number dying on the day of the bombing.
6 August 1965 – President Lydon B. Johnson signs the Voting Rights Act which removed discriminatory voting practices against African Americans. Essentially it meant African Americans could vote freely, without having to meet qualifications that white Americans didn’t need to meet, such as literacy tests.