Wasted Effort

[Prince of Spires]

Deosil and widdershins mean with and against the direction of the sun, respectively. Same kind of concept. Clockwise and counterclockwise mean the same thing because a clock face is designed in imitation of a sundial, which naturally follows the sun's direction from east to west.

I just realised this means that in the southern hemisphere they're actually reversed, so deosil would be counterclockwise...

The funny thing is that it doesn't actually matter if the user knows exactly what the word means, unless that's 100% needed for the story. As long as it's clear from the context that it means a direction in which something turns, then the user will pick up on it and file it away as "local word which means it moves", which can add flavor to your worldbuilding. Of course, if it's important to the plot that something moves in a clockwise manner, as opposed to it just moves in a direction, then you need to explain it to the reader. Otherwise it's fine if the reader just knows it moves.

 

[Rosemary Tea]

I just realised this means that in the southern hemisphere they're actually reversed, so deosil would be counterclockwise...

True. Deosil/clockwise is east to south, south to west, west to north, north to east. Widdershins/counterclockwise is east to north, north to west, west to south, south to east. The sun moves through the sky from east to whichever direction the equator is from us, and from west to the direction of the nearest pole.

I'll have to ask the Australian Pagans I know which way they cast a circle. The standard I know is move deosil (clockwise) to invoke and widdershins (counterclockwise) to devoke, but of course that standard was set north of the equator. Btw, if any comparable practice exists in anyone's fantasy world, that's another place those words could be used.

The funny thing is that it doesn't actually matter if the user knows exactly what the word means, unless that's 100% needed for the story. As long as it's clear from the context that it means a direction in which something turns, then the user will pick up on it and file it away as "local word which means it moves", which can add flavor to your worldbuilding. Of course, if it's important to the plot that something moves in a clockwise manner, as opposed to it just moves in a direction, then you need to explain it to the reader. Otherwise it's fine if the reader just knows it moves.

Personally, I would go look that word up. Unfamiliar words always make me curious.

Which is another good reason to use real, if archaic, words.

 

[skip.knox]

I'm sympathetic with the OP. It really would be wasted effort ... if the author never recorded what was found, never thought about it, never found a place for it. That's just idle web surfing, to use an antiquated phrase.

But record it and it's there. Integrate it with other information and it becomes potentially useful in multiple directions.

As a historian, I've had many a student declare that history is useless. Worse, I hear many a historian try to explain why history is useful. I'm with the student, but for a different reason. A hammer has use. It has utility. History isn't useful in that way. History, I told my students, has value.

And that's way better. Literature has value. Art has value. Everything genuinely important in life is the stuff that has value. Utility is a poor second cousin to value.

So, that research on the ash tree? Valuable!

 

[pmmg]

Cant be wasted effort. I got Deosil and widdershins our of it.

Image the sword battle I can write now:

He wheeled his sword widdershins, his opponent in deosil. The blades met with a long ring of clanging metal. He reversed into deosil, and cut in low...

 

[Prince of Spires]

If you want to dig deeper into sword fighting, check out Guy Windsor's books: Guy Windsor (gumroad.com) . He's one of the best know historical martial arts teachers out there, with loads of training manuals, as historically accurate as possible given the source material. He's also a great guy.