widdershins means anticlockwise, counter-clockwise. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 87 out of 100.
Why this word is great
WIDDERSHINS — [Adverb] In a direction opposite to the usual, specifically counterclockwise or contrary to the sun's course. From Middle Low German weddersinnes, from wed(d)der- ("against, opposite") + the genitive of sin ("direction, way"). Unlike "deosil," which denotes bright, sunwise ritual motion, or "counterclockwise," a sterile geometric term, widdershins is charged with the chill of inversion. It is the witch's deliberate circling of the stone, the slow unscrewing of a rusted iron bolt, the dancer in a reel turning stubbornly against the others—a somatic signature of a world deliberately upturned. To go widdershins is to walk backward in time, retracing steps not to return home, but to un-arrive.
adv
- Anticlockwise, counter-clockwise.“It is unlucky to walk widdershins around a church.”
- The wrong way.