# sinister
## English
### Alternative forms

* sinistre (obsolete)

### Etymology

From Middle English sinistre (“unlucky”), from Old French senestre, sinistre (“left”), from Latin sinister (“left hand”).

### Pronunciation

* (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /ˈsɪnɪstə/
* (US) IPA: /ˈsɪnɪstɚ/
* Audio (US):(file)
* Audio (General Australian):(file)
* Accented on the middle syllable by the older poets, such as Shakespeare, Milton, and Dryden.

### Adjective

sinister (comparative more sinister, superlative most sinister)
* Inauspicious, ominous, unlucky, illegitimate (as in bar sinister).
    Synonyms: foreboding, portentous; see also Thesaurus:ominous
** 1611, Ben[jamin] Jonson, Catiline His Conspiracy, London: […] [William Stansby?] for Walter Burre, →OCLC, (please specify the page):All the several ills that visit earth, Brought forth by night, with a sinister birth.
** 1922, Michael Arlen, “1/5/1”, in “Piracy”: A Romantic Chronicle of These Days‎:And in the meanwhile, Society shivered a little feverishly, filled now with the scions of those who had come over with the Jewish and American Conquests. Escutcheons were becoming valueless, how sinister soever the blots and clots upon them.
* Evil or seemingly evil; indicating lurking danger or harm.
    Synonyms: malicious, malevolent; see also Thesaurus:evil
    sinister influences
    the sinister atmosphere of the crypt
* (archaic) Of the left side.
    Antonym: dexter
** 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:
** c. 1604–1605 (date written), William Shakespeare, “All’s Well, that Ends Well”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i], page 235:His ſicatrice, with an Embleme of warre, heere on his ſiniſter cheeke;
** 1911, Saki, ‘The Unrest-Cure’, The Chronicles of Clovis:Before the train had stopped he had decorated his sinister shirt-cuff with the inscription, ‘J. P. Huddle, The Warren, Tilfield, near Slowborough.’
* (heraldry) On the left side of a shield from the wearer's standpoint, and the right side to the viewer.
    Antonym: dexter
* (obsolete) Wrong, as springing from indirection or obliquity; perverse; dishonest.
** 1625, Francis [Bacon], “Of Judicature”, in The Essayes […], 3rd edition, London: […] Iohn Haviland for Hanna Barret, →OCLC:Nimble and sinister tricks and shifts.
** 1667, Robert South, The Practice of Religion Enforced by Reason:He scorns to undermine another's interest by any sinister or inferior arts.
** 1822, [Walter Scott], The Pirate. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., →OCLC:He read in their looks […] sinister intentions directed particularly toward himself.

#### Derived terms

* bar sinister
* baton sinister
* bend sinister
* sinister aspect
* sinister base
* sinister chief
* sinistral

#### Translations
### References

* ↑ Douglas Harper (2001–2025) “sinister”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

### Anagrams

* insister, resistin, sinistre

## Dutch
### Pronunciation

* Audio:(file)

### Adjective

sinister (comparative sinisterder, superlative sinisterst)
* sinister

#### Declension
## German
### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ziˈnɪstɐ/
* Audio:(file)

### Adjective

sinister (strong nominative masculine singular sinisterer, comparative sinisterer, superlative am sinistersten)
* sinister

#### Declension
### Further reading

* “sinister” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache
* “sinister” in Uni Leipzig: Wortschatz-Lexikon

## Latin
### Etymology

From Proto-Italic *senisteros, of unclear origin. Possibly a euphemism from Proto-Indo-European *senh₂-is- (“more obtaining”), from *senh₂- (“to seek, gain”) (thus the direction of "left" as "the more favorable (side)"), and cognate with Sanskrit सनोति (sanoti, “to gain, procure”), सनीयान् (sanīyān, “more useful, more advantageous”).

### Pronunciation

* (Classical Latin) IPA: /siˈnis.ter/, [s̠ɪˈnɪs̠t̪ɛr]
* (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA: /siˈnis.ter/, [siˈnist̪er]

### Adjective

sinister (feminine sinistra, neuter sinistrum, comparative sinistrior, superlative sinistimus); first/second-declension adjective (nominative masculine singular in -er)
* left
    Synonyms: laevus, scaevus
    Antonym: dexter
* perverse, bad; or adverse, hostile
** 1st BC, Virgilius
    mores sinistri arboribus Notus sinister(please add an English translation of this quotation)
* (religion) auspicious (for Romans) or inauspicious (for Greeks)
** 1st BC, Virgilius
    sinistra cornixgood omen
** 2nd century, Apuleius
    sinistro pede profectusstarted with bad omen

#### Declension

First/second-declension adjective (nominative masculine singular in -er).

#### Descendants

* >? Italian: sinistro
* Late Latin: sinexter
** Italo-Romance:
*** Italian: sinèstro (archaic), >? sinistro
** North Italian:
*** Friulian: signestri
*** Romansch: sanester, seniester (Sursilvan), saniester (Sutsilvan), schnester (Puter, Vallader)
*** Venetan: senestro
** Gallo-Romance:
*** Old Catalan: senestre
*** Old French: senestre
**** Middle French: senestre
***** French: senestre, sénestre, senêtre
**** Norman: s'nêtre
*** Occitan: senèstre
** Ibero-Romance:
*** Asturian: siniestru
*** Old Galician-Portuguese: sẽestro, seestro
**** Portuguese: sestro
*** Old Spanish: siniestro
**** Ladino: siniestro, סינייסטרו
**** Spanish: siniestro
* → Catalan: sinistre
* → Dutch: sinister
* → English: sinister
* → French: sinistre
* → Galician: sinistro
* → Portuguese: sinistro
* → Romanian: sinistru

### References

* “sinister”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
* “sinister”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
* Castiglioni-Mariotti, IL
* ↑ De Vaan, Michiel (2008) “sinister”, in Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 7), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 566
* ↑ Per Klein, Buck.