# dexter
## English
### Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin dexter (“right”).

### Pronunciation

* (UK) IPA: /ˈdɛks.tə/
* (US) IPA: /ˈdɛks.tɝ/
* Audio (UK):(file)

### Adjective

dexter (not comparable)
* (archaic outside heraldry) Right; on the right-hand side. (In heraldry, specifically the bearer's right, which is the viewer's left.)
    Antonym: sinister
** c. 1602, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Troylus and Cressida”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC,, column 2:my Mothers bloud / Runs on the dexter checke, and this ſiniſter / Bounds in my fathers:
** 1887, George William Foote with J. M. Wheeler, Crimes of Christianity, London: Progressive Publishing:Displaying his dexter palm, he exclaimed that there was a hand that never took a bribe; whereupon a smart auditor cried "How about the one behind your back?"
** 1911, Saki, ‘The Match-Maker’, The Chronicles of Clovis:Clovis wiped the trace of Turkish coffee and the beginnings of a smile from his lips, and slowly lowered his dexter eyelid.
** 1998 July 6, Auguste Vachon, Claire Boudreau, Daniel Cogné, Genealogica & Heraldica: Ottawa 1996, University of Ottawa Press, →ISBN, page 324:[…] the dexter lion being gorged […]

#### Derived terms

* bend dexter
* dexter chief
* dexterous
* dexterwise

#### Translations
### Noun

dexter (plural dexters)
* (archaic outside heraldry) The right side (of a building, an equation, a heraldic shield [from the wearer's perspective], etc).
** 1879, London Mathematical Society, Proceedings of the London Mathematical Society, page 112:Subtracting the second from the first, the third from the second and the first from the third successively, we obtain, after transposition, the following identities: — [several equations] But, the sinisters being exact differentials, the dexters are so. Consequently [...]
** 1971, Debala Mitra, Buddhist Monuments:On the dexter of the court is a long hall with an arched ceiling and a door, leading to a small oblong shrine with a vaulted ceiling.

#### See also

* sinister

## Latin
### Alternative forms

* dester (Vulgar or Late Latin, Pompeian inscriptions)

### Etymology

From Proto-Italic *deksteros, from Proto-Indo-European *deḱs-tero-s, from *deḱs- (“right”). Cognate with Ancient Greek δεξιτερός (dexiterós), and compare δεξιός (dexiós), Old High German zesawa (“right hand, right hand side”), Sanskrit दक्षिण (dákṣiṇa), Old Church Slavonic деснъ (desnŭ, “right”).

### Pronunciation

* (Classical Latin) IPA: /ˈdek.ster/, [ˈd̪ɛks̠t̪ɛr]
* (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA: /ˈdek.ster/, [ˈd̪ɛkst̪er]

### Adjective

dexter (feminine dextra or dextera, neuter dextrum or dexterum, comparative dexterior, superlative dextimus); first/second-declension adjective (nominative masculine singular in -er; two different stems)
* right (relative direction), right hand
    Antonyms: laevus, scaevus, sinister
* skillful
** 29 BCE – 19 BCE, Virgil, Aeneid 2.291–292:“‘[...] Sī Pergama dextrā dēfendī possent, etiam hāc dēfēnsa fuissent.’”[Aeneas dreams of Hector, who tells him to flee, not fight:] “‘If Trojan [towers] could have been defended by [any] skillful [hand], [then] certainly by this [hand of mine] they would have been able to be defended.’”
* fortunate, favorable
* proper, fitting

#### Declension

First/second-declension adjective (nominative masculine singular in -er; two different stems).

#### Derived terms

* dextere
* dextra, dextera
* dextrāle
* dextrē
* dexteritās
* dextrāle n, dextrāliolum n
* dextrōrsum, dextrōrsus, dextrōversum
* ambidexter

#### Descendants

* Asturian: diestru
* Catalan: destre
* Dalmatian: diastro
* English: dexter (borrowing)
* Esperanto: dekstra
* French: dêtre (dialectal, archaïc), destre (language of heraldry), dextre (borrowing or revival of the Middle French word)
* Friulian: diestri
* German: Dextrose
* Ido: dextra
* Interlingua: dextre
* Italian: destro
* Norman: dêtre, dêt'e
* Occitan: dèstre
* Old French: destre
* Old Galician-Portuguese: destro
** Galician: destro
** Portuguese: destro
* Old Spanish: diestro
** Spanish: diestro, diestra
* Romanian: dextru (borrowing), zestre
* Sicilian: destru

### References

* “dexter”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
* “dexter”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
* dexter in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
* Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎, London: Macmillan and Co. (ambiguous) to give one's hand to some one: manum (dextram) alicui porrigere (ambiguous) to give one's right hand to some one: dextram alicui porrigere, dare (ambiguous) to shake hands with a person: dextram iungere cum aliquo, dextras inter se iungere

## Romanian
### Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin dexter.

### Adjective

dexter m or n (feminine singular dexteră, masculine plural dexteri, feminine and neuter plural dextere)
* dexterous

#### Declension
### References

* dexter in Academia Română, Micul dicționar academic, ediția a II-a, Bucharest: Univers Enciclopedic, 2010. →ISBN