contrariwise
advEtymology From Middle English contrary-wyse; equivalent to contrary + -wise.
1
Literary In the contrary or opposite way, order, or direction.
- If Burd Ellen had gone “widishins" round the church, she would, I think, have used the best homoeopathic specific against the Elf-King's power; for "to go widishins" was the chief element in elfin practices, and if mortals wished to resist or unspell elf-craft, they, too, had "to go widershins," or they had to repeat the Paternoster backwards, which came to the same thing, or do something else contrariwise.1891 January 3, I. Gollancz, “Widishins”, in The Academy, London, page 14, column 3:
- Rain patters on a sea that tilts and sighs. / Fast-running floors, collapsing into hollows, / Tower suddenly, spray-haired. Contrariwise, / A wave drops like a wall: another follows, / Wilting and scrambling1955, Philip Larkin, “Absences”, in The Less Deceived:
2
Literary on the other hand
- Related terms
- on the contrary