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Widdershins

Dialect
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

In a direction contrary to the sun; counterclockwise, associated with bad luck and the supernatural.

Detailed Definition
"Widdershins" is one of the most evocative words in Scottish folk vocabulary, describing movement against the natural, sunwise direction and all the ill luck and supernatural danger that implies. In ballads and poems of the uncanny, moving widdershins marks transgression into the otherworld, the reversal of the natural order. The word's length and unusual sound give it an incantatory quality that suits its magical associations, and it appears in poetry wherever the boundary between the natural and supernatural world becomes permeable or dangerous.
Example
Example in poetry:
"Widdershins" means to move counter-clockwise or in the wrong direction, considered unlucky in Scottish tradition; A poet might write: "She walked widdershins roon the auld kirk wall — / and something answered, something small." for a supernatural poem; "Go widdershins if ye seek the strange — / the world reversed has its own range." explores the uncanny; "He walked widdershins through his ain life — / aye swimming against the natural fife." uses the word as metaphor for non-conformity; "Widdershins the seasons seemed tae turn / that year of loss beside the burn." applies the term to disrupted natural order; "Nae widdershins for me today — / I'll take the sunwise road and stay." uses contrast between widdershins and deasil for a decision poem; "The witch moved widdershins through the mist — / the world unlocked at every twist." grounds the term in folklore tradition
Additional Notes
Widdershins refers to movement counterclockwise or against the sun’s apparent course and carries strong folkloric associations with ill luck, inversion, witchcraft, and the supernatural in Scottish and broader Celtic traditions. In poetry, its appearance often signals ominous atmosphere, ritual reversal, or uncanny disturbance of natural order. Students of folklore-inflected literature should recognise its symbolic importance rather than reading it merely as a directional term. Compare with deiseil, the sunwise auspicious direction. Widdershins is especially valuable in analysing poems concerned with superstition, liminality, ritual, or the uncanny.
Other Meanings of “Widdershins”
Also Known As
Counterclockwise Anti-clockwise Withershins
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