sinistromanual

English

WOTD – 13 August 2017

Etymology

A sinistromanual, or left-handed, person writing the German word Linkshänder (“a left-hander”)

sinistro- +‎ manual.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈsɪ.nɪs.tɹəʊˌman.jʊ.əl/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈsɪ.nɪs.tɹoʊˌmæn.jə.wəl/
• Hyphenation: sin‧is‧tro‧man‧u‧al

Adjective

sinistromanual (not comparable)

1. Left-handed.
   • 1978, David T[od] Roy, Tsuen-hsuin Tsien, editors, Ancient China: Studies in Early Civilization, Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press, published 1982, →ISBN, page 280:

     [T]he artist, probably for the sake of symmetry, makes one right-handed and the other left-handed. The alternative, of course, is that the latter actually was a sinistromanual player of note [of the game of t'ou hu or pitch-pot] and was thus intentionally represented. In any event, we have in this relief a very early Chinese illustration of this phenomenon.

   • 2008, S[hiv] K[ant] Prasad, “Revolutionary Nanotechnology”, in Modern Concepts in Nanotechnology (Encyclopaedia of Nanoscience; V), New Delhi: Discovery Publishing House, →ISBN, page 187:

     In a world where most major medical maladies are readily treated, numerous minor medical conditions which today escape our notice will rise up from obscurity and present themselves annoyingly to our conscious minds, demanding attention. These conditions may be of several kinds. […] Third is minor physical or functional flaws, such as […] handedness (currently ~90% dextromanual, ~10% sinistromanual), […]

   • 2012, Frederick Ramsay, chapter V, in The Eighth Veil (A Jerusalem Mystery), Scottsdale, Ariz.: Poisoned Pen Press, →ISBN, page 31:

     "Precisely. Whoever killed this young girl was sinistromanual, an unusual state in this day." / "My murderer was left-handed? That is most unusual, I agree. How do you come to that finding?"

Synonyms

• left-handed

Antonyms

• dextromanual
• right-handed

Translations

left-handed — see left-handed

See also

• ambidextrous
• ambilevous
• ambisinistrous

Noun

sinistromanual (plural sinistromanuals)

1. (rare) A person who is left-handed.
   • 1904 August, George M[ilbrey] Gould, “Dextrality and Sinistrality”, in The Popular Science Monthly, volume LXV, number 19, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC, page 363:

     There are other cautions to be emphasized relating to the acquirement of dextrality by the savage: Nearly all the actions which we now call right-handed were in primeval times to him unknown. […] [T]he modern gun and revolver had not been devised. The bow and arrow, the spear, boomerang, club, etc., could be used as well with the left hand by the sinistromanual.

Further reading

• handedness on Wikipedia.Wikipedia