How did people describe circular motion around a central point before clocks were invented?
At a guess, by comparing the direction of motion of the object concerned with the direction of the apparent motion of the sun - “with the sun” or “against the sun” or some such phrase.
In fact, on checking the OED, I see cites for clockwise (and counter-clockwise) from 1888, but cites for with the sun from 1769. All the OED cites for with the sun are nautical; e.g. the first cite describes the direction in which a rope is coiled.
The OED also offers withershins or widdershins, whose primary meaning is “in a direction opposite to the usual; the wrong way”. But there’s a secondary sense of “In a direction contrary to the apparent course of the sun (considered as unlucky or causing disaster)”, with cites from 1545. The word doesn’t seem to have referred to counter-clockwise motion outside the context of an ill omen, and there doesn’t seem to have been any complementary word describing motion with the sun, whether as a good omen or otherwise.
This usage evolved in the Northern Hemisphere, of course. Because the progress of the shadow of the gnomon is counterclockwise south of the Equator:
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The OED also offers withershins or widdershins, whose primary meaning is “in a direction opposite to the usual; the wrong way”. But there’s a secondary sense of “In a direction contrary to the apparent course of the sun (considered as unlucky or causing disaster)”, with cites from 1545. The word doesn’t seem to have referred to counter-clockwise motion outside the context of an ill omen, and there doesn’t seem to have been any complementary word describing motion with the sun, whether as a good omen or otherwise.
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(greening mine)
Deosil seems to be what’s been settled on for current use, and any number of old variants such as deisiel and dessel.
Until someone figured out how to transform a sundial into a mechanism that could hang on a wall, there probably wasn’t much need to describe rotation on a vertical plane.
There has never been any difficulty about putting a sundial on a wall. The style has to be parallel to the axis of rotation of the earth (which means that your style needs to be angled to the horizontal plane at angle equal to your angle of latitude) but the dial can be at any angle at all. All that’s necessary is that the style be positioned so as to cast a shadow on the dial.
Yes. But of course clockfaces also evolved in the northern hemisphere.
The point is that sundials are very ancient. Just a stick driven into the ground will do.
I once asked an Australian if clocks ran the other way down under and he had no idea why one might ask such a question. But sundials certainly do.
After I explained my question, this Ozlander told me that in the first days of being a student in Cambridge, the sun was bugging him at his desk and he moved to avoid it. Dang it, 15 minutes later the sun was back…because he had reflexively moved to the left! Eventually he realized his mistake.
I’ve seen the expressions “sunwise” and “widdershins”, but my cite is a Fritz Leiber fantasy novel.
I can find sunwise in online dictionaries, but I haven’t seen anything to say how old the term is.
In ancient Sanskrit literature, dating back a few thousand years, if someone walked clockwise around something (often done in religious ceremonies) they would say that they ‘walked around it on the right’. i.e. the object, such as a building or a person being cremated, was on their right-hand side.
In folk dancing (such as square dancing, contra dancing, circle dancing, et cetera) you might have all the dancers put their right hands in and walk around in a clockwise circle, calling that a “right hand star”. If just a pair of dancers do it, that’s “allemande right”. If everyone joins hands to form a big circle and moves clockwise, that’s “circle left”
Further question: How will people describe circular motion around a central point after all clocks are digital?
There’s no particular reason to suppose that all clocks ever will be digital, barring some apocalyptic event that destroys all existing analogue clocks, and the memory of them (but somehow leaves us with the ability to continue making digital ones). People still like analogue clocks and will quite likely always continue to like them.
Even of it does happen, we’ll probably retain the terms, just like we retained ‘dialling’ in the context of telephony.
Y-you mean…an aclockalypse?
Too funny!
They don’t call it the End Times for nothing.
Then you have the French, “dans le sens des aiguilles d’une montre” (in the direction of the hands of a watch) and “dans le sens inverse des aiguilles d’une montre” (in the opposite direction of the hands of a watch), which are phrases that are long enough that you will not be surprised to learn that no one ever says them. You will see “sens horaire” and “sens antihoraire” every now and again, but for the most part, *clockwise *and *counterclockwise *are most referred to as, “à droite” (to the right) and “à gauche” (to the left).
How about “tightey” and “loosey”.
Well, why not? We have right hand thread and left hand thread (bolts and nuts).
“Coil the rope to the right” seems simple enough for clockwise.
Good thought. The OED has cites for both sunwise (adj. and adv.) and sunways (adv.).