Boustrophedon

Boustrophedon is a rare word, only to be found in academic contexts. It describes a style of writing hardly known in English, although it occurs in early Greek and other Mediterranean languages, as well as being found in northern runic inscriptions, South Arabia, India, Easter Island and Central America. It refers to the direction in which a text is written.

Boustrophedon, which comes from the Greek words for 'ox-turning' (Βου-στροΦος), may be translated 'as the ox ploughs', or, applying this metaphor to writing, 'alternate lines right-to-left and left-to-right', so that the hand follows a continuous path back and forth across the page. Boustrophedon writing sometimes reverses the directions of the words each line; it may also reverse the order of the letters; and sometimes it even reverses the letter shapes.

Some computer printers work boustrophedonically, although their output is normal English left-to-right type.