
Hey all,
Quentin here! How are you? I hope everything is going right! Ahahaha!!!!! ....... well, you'll think it's funny later...
I am right-handed, in case you didn't know, a characteristic held by 90-93% of the adult population. (according to Wikipedia's article on left-handedness) I've always heard cool etymological stuff about left-versus-right, so I wanted to learn more about it. Let's start with the basics:
The word "right" is a noun which I thought would be hard to define by anything other than saying "that way" while gesturing to the right. At least in the way I'm talking about it now! However, the dictionary had some choice words for me: "denoting or worn on the side of a person's body which is toward the east when they are facing north". [Gasp! Correct me if I'm wrong by I think OED used improper grammar. Shouldn't it be "when he or she is facing north"? Not a big deal usually but it's a dictionary! Clearly the silly men and women behind this atrocity had no jurisdiction to turn me down when I suggested that "aquazyquintic" be put in the dictionary!]
Anyway, The word "right" comes from Old English riht (adjective and noun), rihtan (verb), rihte (adverb), of Germanic origin; related to Latin rectus ‘ruled,’ from an Indo-European root denoting movement in a straight line. The German word for the noun "right" is recht, which simply means "true". This is why we use right to mean both 'correct' and '->'!
On the other hand (*smirk*), the word "left" means "on, toward, or relating to the side of a human body or of a thing that is to the west when the person or thing is facing north."
"Left" originates from Old English lyft, left [weak] (the left-hand side being regarded as the weaker side of the body). The German word for "left" is link, and the word linkisch has taken on the general meaning of awkward.
This is all well and good, but we don't only use words of Germanic origin when we are talking about handedness. Often, we resort to Latin to get our point across. You may already know this but the Latin word for right-handed is dexter, and the for left-handed it is sinister. No, I am not making these up! Clearly, all you lefties out there are evil (etymologically, anyway). And all you righties out there are skilled at whatever it is you do! Actually, we must keep in mind that these two words in Latin have no connotations themselves. So it is really wrong of me to accuse lefties of evil and extol righties as skilled. But, the words that derive from them do have very strong connotations, let's explore several of them, shall we?
Let's start with the English word sinister, and then move onto other English words!
sinister - giving the impression that something harmful or evil is happening or will happen : there was something sinister about that murmuring voice; wicked or criminal [as I said, it's directly from Latin sinister meaning 'left']
dexterous - demonstrating neat skill, esp. with the hands [directly from Latin dexter meaning 'right'] (note: this can be spelled with or without that second e)
ambidextrous - able to use the right and left hands equally well [Latin roots ambi meaning 'both' and dexter meaning 'right-handed', so if you can use both your hands equally well, you have two rights and no lefts!] (another note: this word has to be, for some reason, spelled without that second e that is acceptable in dexterous, weird.)
gauche - lacking ease or grace; unsophisticated or socially awkward [directly from French gauche meaning 'left']
adroit - clever or skillful in using the hands or the mind [from French à droit meaning 'on the right']
Some good words, right? Very handedness-prejudiced, right? Also, it is notable that the phrase 'having two left feet' (meaning awkward in dancing) comes directly from this etymological pattern.
There is a plethora of information about the etymology of right and left (not just in English either, in other languages too! Like Swedish!) on that left-handedness wikipedia page. Cool stuff.
Also, if you are left-handed and your name is Dexter, you are an etymological anomaly! And two wrongs may not make a right, but three rights make a left.
See you next time!
Quentin
P.S. 'aquazygoquintic' means the quality or state of factoring newly conceived polynomials of degree five... while underwater?
P.P.S. Found an awesome word! Zygodactyl means having two toes pointing forward and two backward. It's an adjective! Many birds have zygodactyl feet. I propose a figurative meaning of this word: conflicted. As in: Quentin was zygodactyl about whether or not to purchase the pogo stick. Zygodactyl comes from the Greek roots 'zygo' meaning to tie together, and 'dactyl' meaning finger.