sinister

English

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sinister

Wikipedia

Alternative forms

• sinistre (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English sinistre (“unlucky”), from Old French senestre, sinistre (“left”), from Latin sinister (“left hand”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈsɪnɪstə/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈsɪnɪstɚ/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• Accented on the middle syllable by the older poets, such as Shakespeare, Milton, and Dryden.

Adjective

sinister (comparative more sinister, superlative most sinister)

1. Inauspicious, ominous, unlucky, illegitimate (as in bar sinister).
   • 1611, Ben[jamin] Jonson, Catiline His Conspiracy, London: [William Stansby?] for Walter Burre, →OCLC, (please specify the page):

     All the several ills that visit earth,
     Brought forth by night, with a sinister birth.

   • 1922, Michael Arlen, “1/5/1”, in “Piracy”: A Romantic Chronicle of These Days‎:

     And in the meanwhile, Society shivered a little feverishly, filled now with the scions of those who had come over with the Jewish and American Conquests. Escutcheons were becoming valueless, how sinister soever the blots and clots upon them.

2. Evil or seemingly evil; indicating lurking danger or harm.

   sinister influences

   the sinister atmosphere of the crypt

3. (archaic) Of the left side.

   Antonym: dexter

   • c. 1602, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Troylus and Cressida”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene v], column 2:

     my Mothers bloud
     Runs on the dexter checke, and this ſiniſter
     Bounds in my fathers:

   • c. 1604–1605 (date written), William Shakespeare, “All’s Well, that Ends Well”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, , page 235:

     His ſicatrice, with an Embleme of warre, heere on his ſiniſter cheeke;

   • 1911, Saki, ‘The Unrest-Cure’, The Chronicles of Clovis:

     Before the train had stopped he had decorated his sinister shirt-cuff with the inscription, ‘J. P. Huddle, The Warren, Tilfield, near Slowborough.’

4. (heraldry) On the left side of a shield from the wearer's standpoint, and the right side to the viewer.

   Antonym: dexter

5. (obsolete) Wrong, as springing from indirection or obliquity; perverse; dishonest.
   • 1625, Francis [Bacon], “Of Judicature”, in The Essayes , 3rd edition, London: Iohn Haviland for Hanna Barret, →OCLC:

     Nimble and sinister tricks and shifts.

   • 1667, Robert South, The Practice of Religion Enforced by Reason:

     He scorns to undermine another's interest by any sinister or inferior arts.

   • 1822, [Walter Scott], The Pirate. , volumes (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., →OCLC:

     He read in their looks […] sinister intentions directed particularly toward himself.

Derived terms

Translations

References

Anagrams

• insister, resistin, sinistre

Dutch

Pronunciation

• Audio

  (file)

Adjective

sinister (comparative sinisterder, superlative sinisterst)

1. sinister

Inflection

German

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ziˈnɪstɐ/

• Audio

  (file)

Adjective

sinister (strong nominative masculine singular sinisterer, comparative sinisterer, superlative am sinistersten)

1. sinister

Declension

Further reading

• “sinister” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache
• “sinister” in Uni Leipzig: Wortschatz-Lexikon

Latin

Etymology

From Proto-Italic *senisteros, of unknown origin, but possibly from a euphemism from the same Proto-Indo-European root as Sanskrit सनीयान् (sanīyān, “more useful, more advantageous”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /siˈnis.ter/,
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /siˈnis.ter/,

Adjective

sinister (feminine sinistra, neuter sinistrum, comparative sinistrior, superlative sinistimus); first/second-declension adjective (nominative masculine singular in -er)

1. left

   Synonyms: laevus, scaevus

   Antonym: dexter

2. perverse, bad; or adverse, hostile
   • 1st BC, Virgilius

     mores sinistri
     arboribus Notus sinister

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

3. (religion) auspicious (for Romans) or inauspicious (for Greeks)
   • 1st BC, Virgilius

     sinistra cornix

     good omen

   • 2nd century, Apuleius

     sinistro pede profectus

     started with bad omen

Declension

First/second-declension adjective (nominative masculine singular in -er).

Descendants

• Late Latin: sinexter
  • Italo-Romance:
    • Italian: sinèstro (archaic)
  • North Italian:
    • Friulian: signestri
    • Romansch: sanester, seniester; saniester; schnester
    • Venetian: senestro
  • Gallo-Romance:
    • Old Catalan: senestre
    • Old French: senestre
      • Middle French: senestre
        • French: senestre, sénestre, senêtre
      • Norman: s'nêtre
    • Occitan: senèstre
  • Ibero-Romance:
    • Asturian: siniestru
    • Old Galician-Portuguese: sẽestro, seestro
      • Portuguese: sestro
    • Old Spanish: siniestro
      • Spanish: siniestro
• → Catalan: sinistre
• → Dutch: sinister
• → English: sinister
• → French: sinistre
• → Galician: sinistro
• → Portuguese: sinistro
• → Romanian: sinistru

References

• “sinister”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “sinister”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• Castiglioni-Mariotti, IL