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Sunday 19 October 2014

“The left hand of a dead man dipped in a milk pail causes cream.” — Irish saying

From: Ptak Science Books























“[…] Mr. Conway's The Prevention and Correction of Left-Handedness in Children appeared in 1936, at a time in which he and others saw left-handedness as a deterrent to succeeding in the newly industrialized world. The pamphlet emphasizes the training of children from infancy to overcome left-handedness, which came as a result of parental 'indifference,' who were unable to 'realize the seriousness of the handicap,' which was a ‘sinisitrial condition,’ a ‘disease’ that needed to recognized along the same lines as ‘rickets and pneumonia and colic.’ Much needed to be done to ‘stamp out the newly recognized disease, the curse of left-handedness.’”
Ptak Science Books
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“Historically, the left side, and subsequently left-handedness, was considered negative. The word ‘left’ itself derives from the Anglo-Saxon word lyft, ‘weak.’ In Ancient Greek both words meaning ‘left’ were euphemisms: the word ἀριστερός, aristerós (the standard word in Modern Greek as well) is derived from ἂριστος, áristos, best,’ and the word εὺώνυμος, euōnymos, ‘of good name,’ is another euphemism used in lieu of ‘ill-named.’
     The Latin adjective sinister/sinistra/sinistrum originally meant ‘left’ but took on meanings of ‘evil’ or ‘unlucky’ by the Classical Latin era, and this double meaning survives in European derivatives of Latin, and in the English word ‘sinister.’
     Alternatively, sinister comes from the Latin word sinus meaning ‘pocket’: a traditional Roman toga had only one pocket, located on the left side. [...]
     In Irish, deas means "right side" and "nice". Ciotóg is the left hand and is related to ciotach meaning 'awkward'; ciotógach (kyut-OH-goch) is the term for left-handed. In Welsh, the word chwith means 'left,' but can also mean 'strange,' 'awkward,' or 'wrong.' [...]
     The Scots term for left-handedness is corrie fistit. The term can be used to convey clumsiness. [...]
     In Sanskrit, the word वाम (waama) stands for both 'left' and 'wicked.'”
— Wikipedia
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