dexterity

Etymology

It is borrowed from Middle French dexterité,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} or directly borrowed from Latin dexteritās (“readiness, skilfulness, prosperity”);^[7][8] the OED takes the Latin word as the source and French as perhaps the immediate one, the French being recorded from 1539.^[7] The Latin noun is formed from dexter (“skilful; on the right”) and the suffix -itās (as in -ity),^[8][7][2] and the adjective is from Proto-Indo-European *deks- (“right, on the right hand”).^[3] English also borrowed the Latin adjective as dexter.^[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Mental adroitness or skill, cleverness: 1527, in the Chronicle of Calais,^[7][2] although Merriam-Webster dates this sense to 1518.^[8] The Oxford Dictionary of English also gives the mental sense as the first.^[9]

Semantic evolution

Manual skill, and so skill in using the limbs generally, is recorded from 1548, in Udall's translation of Erasmus's Paraphrases,^[7] and is now the main sense.^[8][10] From the 16th to the 18th century the mental sense was often unfavourable, cleverness in taking advantage or avoiding responsibility;^[3][7] a plural dexterities, clever acts or "sharp practice", was used from 1577 to 1805.^[7] Johnson (1755) gave both senses, readiness of limbs and readiness of contrivance.^[11] The literal sense of right-handedness, from the Latin adjective, appears only late, in the Lancet before 1882, and is rare.^[7][10] The adjective dexterous followed in 1605, first meaning convenient, later skilful (1622).^[2]

Timeline

• 1527 – mental adroitness, cleverness.^[7][2] Merriam-Webster dates the sense to 1518.^[8]
• 1548 – manual skill, deftness in using the hands and limbs.^[7]
• 1577 – a clever act or piece of sharp practice (obsolete by 1805).^[7]
• 1611 – handiness, suitability (obsolete by 1614).^[7]
• before 1882 – right-handedness.^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. Skill and ease in using the hands or body; nimbleness: The surgeon tied the sutures with great dexterity.^[10][8][7]
2. Mental skill or quickness; adroitness or cleverness.^[10][8][7]
3. (rare) Right-handedness.^[10][7]

Related words

• dexterous
• ambidextrous
• dexter

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
9. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b c d e Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
11. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.