Looking up wacky words is quite entertaining….I found another one!
Widdershins. If that isn’t a wacky word, I don’t know what is.
I found it at the same time I found pulchritudinous…. So far that one wins….but widdershins is a close second!
Widdershins…..
Can we just appreciate that word for a second? It sounds like something a weary grandma would use to describe how her rambunctious grandchildren were behaving at the end of the day. “They were running around all widdershins!” Or maybe the name of a very disagreeable cat.
It is not a disagreeable cat, however much it sounds like it. It means counterclockwise. Moving in the opposite direction of the sun. But cats just DO that! Just watch any given cat, (no, Geronimo, we’re not talking about you) try to take a walk with you…. they are ALWAYS where you don’t want them to be……going the wrong way! 🙂 Against how things ought to be.
Apparently it comes from some old German and Dutch words that basically meant “go the wrong way.”
Example: When I throw a bucket of scraps over the fence to my chickies… because that is what I do, I’m pretty sure at least half of them are running widdershins….. not toward the scraps, but just pel-mel, just because everyone else is running!
Here’s what I love about weird old words like this: somebody, somewhere, a very long time ago, decided the world needed a specific word for going the wrong way around. And they were right. Sometimes “counterclockwise” just doesn’t SAY it right. Sometimes you need widdershins!
Language is such a funny, ridiculous thing.
There is even a FONT that is called Widdershins, by David Kerkhoff….and just as you’d expect, it is kind of cattywampus hand writing. Some of the letters are up on the line, and some are down…some are short, and some are taller. So funny!
So now, tell me, do you have a favorite wacky word? One that sounds like it shouldn’t be real but is? Tell me in the comments. I’m pretty sure there’s more than two wacky words out there! 🙂
**** Ok, this is seems random….. But it has come to my attention that one can’t just type in a comment in the comment section….. they have to sign up for a Word Press account first.
I am not telling you that you have to leave a comment….it’s totally ok if you don’t want to. But I know they make you jump through some hoops to leave one…. And if having to sign up to Word Press is making you NOT want to leave a comment, just know that it is just their way of helping protect our blogs and websites against scammers and boogeymen….. they aren’t after your information or anything.
End of sermon…..
Well, I’m having a time coming up with pictures of widdershins, but you get the point! 🙂 Thanks for being here, and come again!
Good Thoughts
Boring I know. Widdershins Definition: Counter-clockwise, opposite the sun’s motion in the Northern Hemisphere. From the Middle Low German weddersinnes, meaning “against the way” or “opposite course”.
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I don’t have a word but I certainly enjoy seeing the ones YOU find.!!