Zigzag

I just found a reference to the word "zigzag" in Emma (published 1815.) It shows up just as Emma discovers (after a lot of zigzagging around in her matchmaking) that Mr. Elton is actually after her, rather than her friend Harriet.

"If there had not been so much anger, there would have been desperate awkwardness; but their straightforward emotions left no room for the little zigzags of embarrassment."

I don't know when I thought it was from, but it struck me as odd in the middle of an Austen piece.

Surprisingly, The Word Detective does not seem to have an entry on the term. However, I did find some history here. It seems that Jonathan Swift (who was also an early adopter of "bamboozle") used the word as early as 1728.