sinister
Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary
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): /ˈsɪnɪstər/
-
Audio (US) (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).
- Ben Jonson
- All the several ills that visit earth, / Brought forth by night, with a sinister birth.
- 1922, Michael Arlen, chapter 1/5/1, “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.
- Ben Jonson
- Evil or seemingly evil; indicating lurking danger or harm.
- sinister influences
- the sinister atmosphere of the crypt
- 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.’
- 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.
- 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.
- 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)
Declension[edit]
Declension of sinister
Latin[edit]
Etymology[edit]
Uncertain origin, but possibly as a euphemism from the same Proto-Indo-European root as Sanskrit [script?] (saniyan, “more useful, more advantageous”).[1]
Pronunciation[edit]
Adjective[edit]
sinister m (feminine sinistra, neuter sinistrum); first/second declension
Inflection[edit]
First/second declension, masculine nominative 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]
- English: sinister
- French: sinistre, senestre (through Old French senestre)
- Galician: sinistro (borrowing)
- Italian: sinistra
- Old Portuguese: sẽestro
- Portuguese: sestro, sinistro (borrowing)
- Romansch: sanester
- Spanish: siniestro
References[edit]
- ^ Per Klein, Buck.
Categories:
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms derived from Old French
- English terms derived from Latin
- English terms with audio links
- English adjectives
- en:Heraldry
- English terms with obsolete senses
- Dutch terms with audio links
- Dutch adjectives
- Latin terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- Latin adjectives
- Latin first and second declension adjectives
