sinister

English

WOTD – 31 October 2006

Alternative forms

• sinistre (obsolete)

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈsɪnɨstə/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈsɪnɨstəɹ/

• Audio (US)

  (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).
   • Ben Jonson

     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^[1]:

     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. Of the left side.
   • Shakespeare

     Here on his sinister cheek.

   • Shakespeare

     My mother's blood / Runs on the dexter cheek, and this sinister / Bounds in my father's.

   • 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.
5. (obsolete) Wrong, as springing from indirection or obliquity; perverse; dishonest.
   • Francis Bacon

     Nimble and sinister tricks and shifts.

   • South

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

   • Sir Walter Scott

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

Antonyms

• (of the right side): dexter
• (heraldry): dexter

Derived terms

Terms derived from sinister

• bar sinister
• baton sinister
• bend sinister

• sinister aspect
• sinister base
• sinister chief

• sinistral

Translations

ominous

• Czech: zlověstný m
• Finnish: pahaenteinen (fi), uhkaava (fi)
• French: sinistre (fr) m, f
• German: sinister (de)
• Japanese: 左前の (hidarimae no)

• Persian: گجسته‎‎ (fa) (gojaste)
• Polish: złowrogi (pl) m, złowieszczy m
• Portuguese: sinistro (pt)
• Russian: злове́щий (ru) (zlovéščij), злополу́чный (ru) (zlopolúčnyj)

evil

• Arabic: شَرِير‎‎ (ar) m (šarīr)
• Czech: zlý (cs), hrozivý
• Finnish: paha (fi)
• French: sinistre (fr) m, f
• German: böse (de)
• Hebrew: מרושע‎‎ m (merusha), רשע‎‎ (he) m (rasha)
• Italian: sinistro (it) m

• Japanese: 悪い (ja) (warui), 奸な (ja) (yokoshima na)
• Malay: jahat
• Polish: złowrogi (pl) m
• Portuguese: sinistro (pt)
• Romanian: sinistru (ro)
• Russian: злой (ru) (zloj)
• Spanish: siniestro (es) m

of the left

• Czech: levý (cs)
• Finnish: vasemmanpuolinen
• German: sinister (de), links (de), linksseitig (de)
• Irish: clé
• Italian: sinistra (it) f

• Japanese: 左の (ja) (hidari no)
• Portuguese: sinistro (pt), sestro (pt), esquerdo (pt)
• Russian: находя́щийся сле́ва (naxodjáščijsja sléva)
• Spanish: siniestro (es) m
• Telugu: ఎడమ (te) (eḍama)

heraldic "left"

• Danish: sinister (da), heraldisk venstre
• French: sénestre (fr)
• German: linker (de) m

• Italian: sinistra (it)
• Spanish: siniestro (es) m, izquierdo (es) m

Anagrams

• insister, resistin, sinistre

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Dutch

Pronunciation

• Audio

  (file)

Adjective

sinister (comparative sinisterder, superlative sinisterst)

1. sinister

Inflection

Inflection of sinister
uninflected	sinister
inflected	sinistere
comparative	sinisterder
		positive	comparative	superlative
predicative/adverbial		sinister	sinisterder	het sinisterst het sinisterste
indefinite	m./f. sing.	sinistere	sinisterdere	sinisterste
	n. sing.	sinister	sinisterder	sinisterste
	plural	sinistere	sinisterdere	sinisterste
definite		sinistere	sinisterdere	sinisterste
partitive		sinisters	sinisterders	—

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Latin

Etymology

Uncertain origin, but possibly as a euphemism from the same Proto-Indo-European root as Sanskrit सनीयान् (sanīyān, “more useful, more advantageous”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /siˈnis.ter/, [sɪˈnɪs.tɛr]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /siˈnis.ter/

Adjective

sinister (feminine sinistra, neuter sinistrum); first/second declension

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

     mores sinistri

     arboribus Notus sinister

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

Inflection

First/second declension, nominative masculine singular in -er.

Number	Singular				Plural
Case / Gender	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter		Masculine	Feminine	Neuter
nominative	sinister	sinistra	sinistrum		sinistrī	sinistrae	sinistra
genitive	sinistrī	sinistrae	sinistrī		sinistrōrum	sinistrārum	sinistrōrum
dative	sinistrō		sinistrō		sinistrīs
accusative	sinistrum	sinistram	sinistrum		sinistrōs	sinistrās	sinistra
ablative	sinistrō	sinistrā	sinistrō		sinistrīs
vocative	sinister	sinistra	sinistrum		sinistrī	sinistrae	sinistra

Synonyms

• (left): laevus
• (left): scaevus

Antonyms

• (left): dexter

Descendants

• Asturian: siniestru
• Catalan: sinistre (borrowing)
• English: sinister (borrowing)
• French: sinistre (borrowing), senestre (through Old French senestre)
• Friulian: signestri
• Galician: sinistro (borrowing)
• Italian: sinistro, sinistra, sinestro
• Norman: s'nêtre

• Occitan: senèstre
• Old Catalan: senestre, sinestre
• Old Portuguese: sẽestro
• Portuguese: sestro, sinistro (borrowing)
• Romanian: sinistru (borrowing)
• Romansch: sanester, schnester
• Spanish: siniestro
• Venetian: senestro

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