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).
- 1611, Ben[jamin] Jonson, Catiline His Conspiracy, London: […] [William Stansby?] for Walter Burre, OCLC 1048971098, (please specify |act=I to V):
- 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.
- Evil or seemingly evil; indicating lurking danger or harm.
- sinister influences
- the sinister atmosphere of the crypt
- (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[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act V, scene v], column 2:
- my Mothers bloud / Runs on the dexter checke, and this ſiniſter / Bounds in my fathers:
- c. 1604–1605, William Shakespeare, “All’s VVell, that Ends VVell”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act II, scene i], 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.’
- (heraldry) On the left side of a shield from the wearer's standpoint, and the right side to the viewer.
- Antonym: dexter
- (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 863521290:
- 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. […], volume (please specify |volume=I, II, or III), Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., OCLC 779274973:
- He read in their looks […] sinister intentions directed particularly toward himself.
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 | — | |
German[edit]
Pronunciation[edit]
Adjective[edit]
sinister (strong nominative masculine singular sinisterer, comparative sinisterer, superlative am sinistersten)
Declension[edit]
Positive forms of sinister
Comparative forms of sinister
Superlative forms of sinister
Further reading[edit]
- “sinister” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache
- “sinister” in Uni Leipzig: Wortschatz-Lexikon
Latin[edit]
Etymology[edit]
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”).[1]
Pronunciation[edit]
- (Classical) IPA(key): /siˈnis.ter/, [s̠ɪˈnɪs̠t̪ɛr]
- (Ecclesiastical) IPA(key): /siˈnis.ter/, [siˈnist̪er]
Adjective[edit]
sinister (feminine sinistra, neuter sinistrum); first/second-declension adjective (nominative masculine singular in -er)
- 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
Declension[edit]
First/second-declension adjective (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 | |
Descendants[edit]
- Asturian: siniestru
- Catalan: sinistre (borrowing)
- Dutch: sinister (borrowing)
- English: sinister (borrowing)
- French: sinistre (borrowing), senestre
- Friulian: signestri
- Galician: sinistro (borrowing), seistro
- 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.
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