wordy wednesday: ambisinister/ambidextrous

 

I first became familiar with the word ambidextrous when my dad took the family to Cincinnati Reds baseball games at Riverfront Stadium and he told me about batters who could bat equally well using either side. 

Ambidextrous (coming from the Latin word dexter) implies something good. It throws off a positive vibe. Ambidexterity is a special quality that few people have.

When you think of something (or someone) sinister, there’s a good chance it’s not a pleasant because it means “threatening or portending evil, harm, or trouble.”

The word sinister, which comes from Latin, originally meaning “left” or “on the left hand or side” and took on nefarious connotations of wrong or unfavorable. The idea  is connected to historical associations of the left-hand as weaker, and therefore less favorable, than the right. In Christianity a description of Judgment Day in the Gospel of Matthew states that the sheep on the shepherd’s right will be brought to heaven while the goats on the left will go to the devil. In Judaism, ancient texts associate the right with strength and godliness and the left with weakness. The left is associated with uncleanliness in Islamic texts, and eating or drinking with the left hand is frowned upon.

In my school school days, a few people wrote with their left hands. No big deal when I was growing up. 

People notice differences. One of my older relatives didn't like her hand writing, she thought it was messy. She was left-handed but back in her school days when learning to write, left-handedness was unacceptable. The teacher forced her to write with her right hand, smacking her knuckles if she used her left hand. A bias because she was different.

There’s a bias against left-handers that’s built into the language. For example, if a person dances with two left feet is he or she is clumsy. There’s also the phrase left-handed compliment, which, like backhanded compliment, means to compliment someone in a way that’s also unflattering.

Sinister may have a linguistic and historic connection to left-handed people, but at the end of the day, lefties are as skillful, lucky, and dextrous  as right-hand dominant people.