Etymology

boustrophedon

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Today it means: Text written such that its direction alternates on each line, resulting in a continuous stream of characters spanning multiple lines; frequently also involving the corresponding alternation of letter directionality using mirrored letters, indicating the direction of the text at any given point. Full definition →

Ancient Greek βουστροφηδόν
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The story

  1. Ancient Greek · learned borrowing fromβουστροφηδόν
  2. English todayboustrophedon

PIE word *gʷṓws Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *gʷṓws Proto-Hellenic *gʷous Ancient Greek βοῦς (boûs) Proto-Indo-European *stregʷʰ-der.? Ancient Greek στρέφω (stréphō) Proto-Indo-European *-h₂ Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂ Proto-Hellenic *-ā́ Ancient Greek -ᾱ (-ā) Ancient Greek -η (-ē) Ancient Greek στροφή (strophḗ) Ancient Greek -ηδόν (-ēdón) Ancient Greek βουστροφηδόν (boustrophēdón)lbor. English boustrophedon Learned borrowing from Ancient Greek βουστροφηδόν (boustrophēdón, adverb, literally “turning like an ox”), from βοῦς (boûs, “ox”) + στροφή (strophḗ, “turning”) + -ηδόν (-ēdón, adverbial suffix), in reference to the back-and-forth course traced by boustrophedon text resembling the path taken by an ox ploughing a field.

Words from the same roots

Ancient Greekβουστροφηδόν all →

boustrophedicboustrophedicallyboustrophedonallyboustrophedonicboustrophedonically

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.