sinister
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English[edit]
Alternative forms[edit]
- sinistre (obsolete)
Etymology[edit]
From Middle English sinistre (“unlucky”), from Old French sinistra (“left”), from Latin sinestra (“left hand”).
Pronunciation[edit]
- (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[edit]
sinister (comparative more sinister, superlative most sinister)
- Inauspicious, ominous, unlucky, illegitimate (as in bar sinister).
- (Can we date this quote?) 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.
- (Can we date this quote?) Ben Jonson
- Evil or seemingly evil; indicating lurking danger or harm.
- sinister influences
- the sinister atmosphere of the crypt
- Of the left side.
- (Can we date this quote?) Shakespeare
- Here on his sinister cheek.
- (Can we date this quote?) William 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.’
- (Can we date this quote?) Shakespeare
- (heraldry) On the left side of a shield from the wearer's standpoint, and the right side to the viewer.
- (obsolete) Wrong, as springing from indirection or obliquity; perverse; dishonest.
- (Can we date this quote?) Francis Bacon
- Nimble and sinister tricks and shifts.
- (Can we date this quote?) South
- He scorns to undermine another's interest by any sinister or inferior arts.
- (Can we date this quote?) Sir Walter Scott
- He read in their looks […] sinister intentions directed particularly toward himself.
- (Can we date this quote?) Francis Bacon
Antonyms[edit]
Derived terms[edit]
Terms derived from sinister
Translations[edit]
ominous
evil
of the left
heraldic "left"
Anagrams[edit]
Dutch[edit]
Pronunciation[edit]
Audio (file)
Adjective[edit]
sinister (comparative sinisterder, superlative sinisterst)
Inflection[edit]
| 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 | — | |
Latin[edit]
Etymology[edit]
Uncertain origin, but possibly from a euphemism from the same Proto-Indo-European root as Sanskrit सनीयान् (sanīyān, “more useful, more advantageous”).[1]
Pronunciation[edit]
Adjective[edit]
sinister (feminine sinistra, neuter sinistrum); first/second declension
- left
- perverse, bad; or adverse, hostile
- 1st BC, Virgilius
- mores sinistri
- arboribus Notus sinister
- 1st BC, Virgilius
- (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
- 1st BC, Virgilius
Inflection[edit]
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 | sinistrae | sinistrō | sinistrīs | sinistrīs | sinistrīs | |
| Accusative | sinistrum | sinistram | sinistrum | sinistrōs | sinistrās | sinistra | |
| Ablative | sinistrō | sinistrā | sinistrō | sinistrīs | sinistrīs | sinistrīs | |
| Vocative | sinister | sinistra | sinistrum | sinistrī | sinistrae | sinistra | |
Descendants[edit]
- Asturian: siniestru
- Catalan: sinistre (borrowing)
- Dutch: sinister (borrowing)
- English: sinister (borrowing)
- French: sinistre (borrowing), senestre
- Friulian: signestri
- Galician: sinistro (borrowing)
- Italian: sinistro, sinistra, sinestro
- Norman: s'nêtre
- Occitan: senèstre
- Old Catalan: senestre, sinestre
- Old French: senestre
- Old Portuguese: sẽestro, seestra
- Portuguese: sestro, sinistro (borrowing)
- Romanian: sinistru (borrowing)
- Romansch: sanester, schnester
- Spanish: siniestro, siniestra
- Venetian: senestro, sinistro
References[edit]
- 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
- ^ Per Klein, Buck.
Categories:
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms derived from Old French
- English terms derived from Latin
- English 3-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio links
- English lemmas
- English adjectives
- English terms with quotations
- en:Heraldry
- English terms with obsolete senses
- Dutch terms with audio links
- Dutch lemmas
- Dutch adjectives
- Latin terms with unknown etymologies
- Latin terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- Latin 3-syllable words
- Latin terms with IPA pronunciation
- Latin terms with Ecclesiastical IPA pronunciation
- Latin lemmas
- Latin adjectives
- la:Religion
- Latin first and second declension adjectives with nominative masculine singular in -er
- Latin first and second declension adjectives
