1. An ancient way of writing manuscripts and other inscriptions in which, rather than going from left to right as in modern English, or right to left as in Arabic, alternate lines must be read in opposite directions: "As a student of ancient writings, Jamie was interested in the boustrophedon texts that he discovered in some classical documents."
2. Etymologically these words come from Greek βους, "ox" and στρεφειν, "to turn", because the hand of the writer went back and forth like an ox drawing a plow across a field and turning at the end of each row to return in the opposite direction.