sinister

adj

Etymology: Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *senh₂- Proto-Indo-European *senh₂-is-? Proto-Italic *senisteros Latin sinister Late Latin sinextrum Old French senestrebor. Middle English sinistre English sinister From Middle English sinistre (“unlucky”), from Old French senestre, sinistre (“left”), from Latin sinister (“left hand”).

1. Inauspicious, ominous, unlucky, illegitimate.

   “bar sinister”

   “All the several ills that visit earth / Brought forth by night, with a sinister birth.”

2. Evil or seemingly evil; indicating lurking danger or harm.

   “sinister influences”

   “the sinister atmosphere of the crypt”

3. Of the left side.

   “my Mothers bloud / Runs on the dexter checke, and this ſiniſter / Bounds in my fathers:”

   “His ſicatrice, with an Embleme of warre, heere on his ſiniſter cheeke;”

4. Of the left side.

   “The shield was divided into five, with two coats of arms on the dexter side (the right-hand side from the point of view of the bearer of the shield)—London and Southampton—and three on the sinister side—Salisbury, Winchester and Portsmouth.”

5. Wrong, as springing from indirection or obliquity; perverse; dishonest.

   “Nimble and sinister tricks and shifts.”

   “He scorns to undermine another's interest by any sinister or inferior arts.”