How did people refer to clockwise movement before the invention of the clock?

zephyr@lemmy.world to No Stupid Questions@lemmy.world – 325 points –

Was there an alternative adjective to "clockwise" other than "the rotation you take around left hand"?

Also, how did all watch companies around the world agree on what the direction of "clockwise" is?

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Turnwise and widdershins

I always heard it as 'deosil and widdershins'

As a non-native English reader, I now am not sure if this is a Pratchett reference or if these are actual round world terms...

Pratchett's just using real-world (albeit archaic) terms: widdershins and deosil.