[danohuiginn]

"Lawn-mower pattern" is their new phrase for when people skim content left-to-right, then drop down to the next line and go right-to-left, until they get back to the beginning.

I LOVE this. Why? Because it so perfectly replicates a metaphor from ancient Greece. Some early manuscripts were written the same way. Write the first line left-to-right, then the next line is right-to-left, then flip again.

They called this "Ox-turn" writing (boustrophedonic), because it's like the pattern you make when plowing a field. We don't use oxen much any more, but we do use lawnmowers. So the same phrase comes back!

http://www.worldwidewords.org/weirdwords/ww-bou1.htm

[082349872349872]

Oxen plowing fields is probably also why the canonical acre is a rectangular, not square, measure. (1 furlong x 1 chain)