Boustrophedon

Let’s pause to consider our underused word of the day. Back it bring can we, together pull all we if. Did that last sentence confuse you? On going what’s understand you once it of jist the get you’ll, there in hang. Actually, mine’s not entirely correct; the keyboard cannot type mirrored characters, and I’m treating words, not letters, as units. Exploring worth concept similar a it’s, hell the what but. So check it out and have fun with it:

WORD:
boustrophedon

PRONUNCIATION:
(boo-struh-FEED-n, -FEE-don)

MEANING:
noun: A method of writing in which lines are written alternately in opposite direction, from left to right, and right to left.

ETYMOLOGY:
From boustrophedon, literally ox-turning, referring to the movement of an ox while plowing a field, from bous (ox) and strophe (turning). It’s the same strophe that shows up in catastrophe (literally, an overturning) and apostrophe (literally, turning away, referring to the omission of a letter.

NOTES:
In such writing, each letter on the alternate lines was written as in a mirror image or rotated 180 degrees. We still do many things boustrophedonically, such as mowing the lawn, vacuuming the floor, etc. In many computer printers, such as dot-matrix and inkjet, the print head usually moves in the boustrophedon mode (though thankfully doesn’t print letters mirrored or rotated).

(via andreas via wordsmith.org: source)