Word of the day
Mostly because I can’t think of anything serious to write about, I’ll give you one of my favorite words.
“Ambisinister”: clumsy or unskillful with both hands.
Ambisinister, or ambisinistrous is the antonym of ambidextrous.
What makes this word interesting is an examination of the Latin roots of both ambisinister and ambidextrous. Omitting the “ambi”, which is the same for each word, you’re left with “sinister” and “dexter“. The Latin word for right-handed is “dexter”, and the Latin for left-handed is “sinister”.
Thus, ambisinister, literally means “like having two left hands”, and its antonym means “two right hands”.
August 14th, 2007 at 4:07 pm
Being as I am left-hand dominant, I use ambisinister to denote the fact that I am also able to make effective use of my right hand. No clumsiness or lack of skill implied. The only reason I shoot left-handed is that I am so strongly left eyed.
August 14th, 2007 at 5:12 pm
This is further carried through in the English language usage of the words “adroit,” meaning skillful, and “gauche,” meaning ill mannered. In French the basic meanings of these words are right and left.