sinister
English
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): /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
sinister (comparative more sinister, superlative most sinister)
- Inauspicious, ominous, unlucky, illegitimate (as in bar sinister).
- (Can we date this quote by Ben Jonson and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)
- 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 by Ben Jonson and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)
- Evil or seemingly evil; indicating lurking danger or harm.
- sinister influences
- the sinister atmosphere of the crypt
- Of the left side.
- c. 1604–1605 (date written), William Shakespeare, “All’s Well, that Ends Well”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]:
- Here on his sinister cheek.
- 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, [Act V, scene v]:
- 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.’
- (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 by Francis Bacon and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)
- Nimble and sinister tricks and shifts.
- (Can we date this quote by South and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)
- He scorns to undermine another's interest by any sinister or inferior arts.
- (Can we date this quote by Walter Scott and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)
- He read in their looks […] sinister intentions directed particularly toward himself.
- (Can we date this quote by Francis Bacon and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)
Antonyms
Derived terms
Terms derived from sinister
Translations
ominous
|
evil
|
of the left
|
heraldic "left"
Anagrams
Dutch
Pronunciation
Audio (file)
Adjective
sinister (comparative sinisterder, superlative sinisterst)
Inflection
Declension 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
Pronunciation
Adjective
sinister (comparative sinisterer, superlative am sinistersten)
Declension
Latin
Etymology
Uncertain origin, but possibly from a euphemism from the same Proto-Indo-European root as Sanskrit सनीयान् (sanīyān, “more useful, more advantageous”).[1]
Pronunciation
- (Classical) IPA(key): /siˈnis.ter/, [s̠ɪˈnɪs̠t̪ɛr]
- (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA(key): /siˈnis.ter/, [siˈnist̪er]
Adjective
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
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
- 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 Galician-Portuguese: sẽestro, seestra
- Portuguese: sestro, sinistro (borrowing)
- Romanian: sinistru (borrowing)
- Romansch: sanester, schnester
- Spanish: siniestro, siniestra
- Venetian: senestro, sinistro
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
- ^ Per Klein, Buck.
Categories:
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- English terms derived from Latin
- English 3-syllable words
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- English lemmas
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- Requests for date/Ben Jonson
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- en:Heraldry
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- German 3-syllable words
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- German lemmas
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- Latin terms with unknown etymologies
- Latin terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- Latin 3-syllable words
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- Latin adjectives
- Latin first and second declension adjectives with nominative masculine singular in -er
- Latin first and second declension adjectives
- la:Religion