Boustrophedon

[Dr. Goodword]

• boustrophedon •

Pronunciation: bus-trê-fee-dên • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Noun

Meaning: The back-and-forth style of writing used by the Hittites, Greeks, and others, in which the lines are written alternately from left to right then right to left. Early impact-type computer printers often had boustrophedonic heads that moved left to right, then right to left to increase speed.

Notes: In the 2000 US federal elections, the (in)famous butterfly ballots used in Florida that listed candidates on facing pages were called by some boustrophedonic, the adjective for this peculiar word. The metaphor does not quite work, but those who know this word can make the connection. The adverb is boustrophedonically "in a back and forth pattern".

In Play: Systematic searches often follow a boustrophedon: "We carried out a very careful boustrophedonic search of the wooded area and found nothing." Heating elements and cooling coils in refrigerators are often boustrophedonic, and boustrophedonic ribbon candy is not at all rare.

Word History: This funny word comes from Greek boustrophedon "turning like an ox (while plowing)", a compound containing bous "ox" + strophe "a turning". Bous originated in the Proto-Indo-European word gwou- "cow, bull, ox", which reached English as cow, Hindi as gaya "cow" (Sanskrit gauh), and shows up in Russian govyadina "beef". We also find the Greek bous tucked into boubalos "buffalo", an ancestor of English buffalo. Strophe comes from the Greek verb strephein "to turn" and is a relative of English strap and Latin stroppus "twisted cord."

[Slava]

Would the layering of soft ice cream into the cone also be boustrophedonic? That would be fun next summer; toss that one out there at the beach.

[David Myer]

Well sort of Slava. Your example is a sort of vertical boustrophedonic layering. I recently attended a meeting at which I sat in the second seat along in the second row. A registration list was circulated to record attendance. The process started at the other end of the front row. Everyone duly passed it along to the end of the front row and the last person turned and gave it to the woman next to me. She filled it in and turned to pass it to the person behind her. "No, no," I said, "we are passing it boustrophedonically." Quite reasonably, she looked at me as though I were from another planet and continued to transfer the paper to the person behind her. I decided to let it go. But I did get a vague sort of 'inner circle' glow.

[Philip Hudson]

That inner circle glow may be all one gets for some intelligent or good deed. Take it while it is available. If it helps I will give you an attaboy.