Eogitjang was originally a carpenter's term. A plank door, made by joining boards together, easily warps on its own after long exposure to sun, wind, and rain. To prevent this, a carpenter would nail a horizontal batten across the door, then add a long bar running diagonally across it to keep the door from twisting out of shape. That slanted, crosswise brace was called the eogitjang. The key is its very form: it does not run straight but is set deliberately at an odd, crossing angle. From the image of the eogitjang driven slantwise against the straight, true grain, the act of refusing to go along and instead deliberately balking and resisting came to be called "laying down an eogitjang." A brace fitted to keep a door from twisting became, in an ironic reversal, the symbol of a twisted disposition.