Origin Story
Latin sinister began as a neutral word simply meaning "left." But Roman augurs read omens from the direction in which birds flew, and signs that appeared on the left were taken as ill-fated. This superstition seeped into the language, and sinister drifted from "on the left" to "ominous, evil." Its opposite, Latin dexter ("right"), carried positive connotations of "skillful, capable" and gave us dexterous. The same bias fueled centuries of prejudice against the left-handed; even French gauche ("left") came to mean "clumsy, awkward."
Even English "left" traces to Old English lyft, meaning "weak." Bias against the left was near-universal across East and West, and the practice of "correcting" left-handed children persisted well into the 20th century.
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Oxford English Dictionarysinister: from Latin sinister "left, on the left side," regarded as unlucky in Roman augury
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Online Etymology Dictionarysinister (adj.): early 15c., from Old French sinistre, from Latin sinister "left, on the left side," hence "unlucky, inauspicious"
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Merriam-Webster DictionaryLatin sinister "on the left side, unlucky" — left was considered the unlucky side in augury
Word Evolution
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Words from the Same Root
Memory Hook
sinister = sin + ister. There is a "sin" hiding right at the front — fittingly, for something ominous and evil born from the "left."
""It is not the left that is sinister — it is the prejudice.""
