Widdershins
First recorded in the early 16th Century, Widdershins is a Scottish word originating from the German widersinnes, with wide meaning counter and sins meaning direction or way.
Widdershins means to move in a direction that is opposite to the usual direction - to go the wrong way round, to go in an anti-clockwise direction. It also means to move in the direction opposite to the sun.
It is often used in relation to the occult and folklore, for example, dancing widdershins around a ring of toadstools will put you under the power of fairies (something that rarely seems to end well ...)
In Dorothy L. Sayers' novel The Nine Tailors one of the characters avoids walking around the church anti-clockwise as it is bad luck to walk round a church anti-clockwise or widdershins.
"He turned to his right, knowing that it is unlucky to walk about a church widdershins..."
Sources:
Shorter Oxford Dictionary (2 volumes) 6th edition, 2007
The Nine Tailors by Dorothy L. Sayers
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Widdershins [accessed 09.03.11]
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