From: "Panza, Robin" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Tue Nov 11, 2003 11:52:24 US/Eastern To: "'Tamara P. Duvall'" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: RE: Right? Left?
From: Martha Krieg <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Also no coincidence that "left-handed" and "sinister" are the same word in
latin. If you can't predict it, it must be wrong and evil.
And "adroit" means right-handed and "gauche" means left-handed.
And "left" comes from Anglo-Saxon "lyft", meaning weak or broken.
And "no ser zurdo" (Spanish) = to be clever (literally, not left-handed).
And "linkisch" (German) = awkward and maladroit in the dictionary.
And "mancino" (Italian) = dishonest (from mancus = crooked or maimed).
And in Russian, being called left-handed (levja) is just a plain insult.
And "bongo" (Romany/Gypsy) = a fixed race/game or dishonest/wicked person.
And "nespretan" (Serbo-croatian) = awkward, unskilled.
And "kreisais" (Latvian) = left side and wrong side.
And "levobocek" (Czech) = bastard.
In Hawaiian, left-handed is hema; hemahema means ignorant, unskilled,
clumsy, etc.
An illegitimate child comes from "the left side of the bed". left-handed complement = insult left-handed marriage = adultery and left-handed wife = mistress left-handed left-handed diagnosis = wrong left-handed business = criminal or other unsavory activity left-handed ship = an unlucky one
Interestingly, ambidextrous (meaning two right hands) in Basque is
eskerreskuindar, literally left-right. I'm moving to Basque country where
they don't discriminate against us so badly.
R
In Polish, "ambidextrous" is "both-handed" (obureczny). But, if you're doing something illegal/shady, you're doing it "on the left"... :)
-----
Tamara P Duvall
Lexington, Virginia, USA
Formerly of Warsaw, Poland
http://lorien.emufarm.org/~tpd/
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