Ox-turning

Falling in love with a language happens one word at a time. My word for today is boustrophedon, an English word that’s based on a Greek word. It’s a writing style from ancient times in which alternate lines go in opposite directions: one line from left to right and the next from right to left. 

In Greek the word looks like this: βουστροφηδόν. And it literally means “ox-turning” or “as the ox ploughs.” Oxen first go in one direction, then come back in the other direction. I love words like this, metaphors that contain a lesson in ancient agriculture.

Another one of my favorite Greek words is “harmolipi.”(This one never made it into English.) It’s a compound word based on the words for joy and sorrow, and naturally it means a mix of the two, “joyful sorrow,” according to one theologian.

This is how it looks in Greek: χαρμολύπη. It’s a sensation that I feel every time I leave that country.

Credits:

http://fontforge.sourceforge.net/glossary.html (boustrophedonic text.)

http://www.metropostcard.com/topicalsb.html (oxen).