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  • Hi this is Tutor Nick P and this is Word Origin 60. The origin today is sinister.

  • in English. All right. Let's take a look at the note. If someone says that another

  • person is sinister, he or she means that this person is threatening and may do

  • harm or evil, something like that. Any time we say that something is sinister, bad or

  • evil is connected to that idea. Okay. Let's continue. The origin goes back to

  • Latin. Even though when reading on us, the idea may even go back further to

  • like I think the Greek Empire. But if you want a direct connection to the word

  • sinister Latin is is better. In Latin sinestra meant left. So at first it just

  • meant literally left. But then it started to develop. So historically, the left side

  • were people who were left handed we're thought to be unlucky and then

  • eventually they kind of connected the ideas of evil or threatening with them

  • too. In many European languages you can find vocabulary that reflects this. This

  • is true with both French and Italian. Yes. I do remember I had studied Italian, you

  • know, Sinestra I remember it meant on the left and immediately made the

  • connection. Oh sinister, you know right is good. That's left

  • and I think sinistra I think in French. And there's a lot of other European

  • languages that have some sort of variation of this. This connection to

  • right and left where right is good left is bad. Let's continue. The right side

  • also took on the meanings of correct or proper. Okay. You could see this in such

  • English words as' righteous' meaning morally good or correct or 'rightful'

  • meaning officially or legally you know, accepted. Okay. Let's continue. In many

  • cultures parents would often try to change children that were

  • naturally left-handed to write with their right hand. You don't see it as

  • much anymore. Growing up in the US. I didn't really see it in my generation.

  • But I do remember that my father was originally left-handed and his parents

  • tried to force him to be right-handed. So they did force him to write with his

  • right hand. But of course, he still naturally did a lot of other things with

  • his left hand. And you know, even when I came to ... when I first came to Asia I

  • also found this in in Asia too. That many people believe this in in Asia as well. I

  • remember, probably more than 20 years ago I knew , I knew a girl English teacher

  • who worked at a school for , for kids. So it was really basic English that she was

  • teaching. But when the owner of that school realized that she was left-handed

  • he actually fired her just for being left-handed. Now I don't think the same

  • thing would happen today. But at that time even just 20 years ago that did

  • happen. So it was kind of a left handed prejudice. I don't know something like

  • that, but anyway you never know. I don't think left-handers have too much

  • to fear today. I don't I think that any sort of a bias against them has kind of

  • dwindled over time. So most cultures don't think this way, but you don't have

  • to go that far back just just really a couple of generations. One generation or

  • two generations and you will find this in a lot of cultures. Anyway, I hope it

  • was informative that you know, you realize but the sinestra left was

  • always bad. Right was always good. I hope it was food for thought and I hope you

  • enjoyed it. Thank you for your time. Bye- bye.

Hi this is Tutor Nick P and this is Word Origin 60. The origin today is sinister.

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