senestre

Forms

senestre (plural senestres)^[1] Also spelled sénestre.^[2][3] Old French sinestre for the noun “left hand”.^[2][4] Anglo-Norman spellings include cenestre, senester and sinistre.^[5]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old French senestre, inherited from Latin sinister (“left, on the left, unlucky”); the Latin feminine used as a noun, sinistra, meant “left hand”.^[2][4][3] In the language of the augurs the Latin word meant “coming from the left”, which was favourable under the Etrusco-Roman rite and ill-omened under the Greek one; the second reading prevailed.^[4] It is a doublet of sinistre, a borrowing from Latin.^[1][3]

Wiktionary notes that the regular outcome of senestre in Middle French would have been senêtre, and that the /s/ was restored in pronunciation after the spelling as the word became archaic.^[1] Cognate with Old Italian sinestro and Old Occitan senestre.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in the Chanson de Roland as an adjective meaning “left”.^[2][7][4] The noun sinestre “the left hand” follows at the end of the 12th century, in the Sermons of Saint Bernard.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The word kept the plain Latin sense “left” and was still in use in the 18th century, but gauche first rivalled and then replaced it, as droit replaced dextre.^[4] The adverbial phrase à senestre “to the left” is found about 1155.^[4]

Heraldry kept the word: the TLFi dates au senestre côté in heraldry to the end of the 15th century, in Molinet,^[2] and the senestre side of the shield is the left side for the bearer who holds it.^[4] In 1872 the adjective was applied to snail shells that coil anticlockwise.^[2][4] The noun for the left side of the shield is recorded by Larousse in 1875.^[2]

Timeline

• 1080 – First recorded in the Chanson de Roland, meaning “left”.^[3][4]
• c. 1155 – The phrase à senestre “to the left” appears.^[4]
• c. 1190 – Sinestre is used as a noun for the left hand.^[4][2]
• Late 15th century – Molinet uses senestre côté in heraldry.^[2]
• 1658 – Sénestre “turned to the left” in heraldry.^[4][7]
• 1690 – The heraldic derivatives sénestré and sénestrochère are recorded.^[4]
• 1872 – First applied to left-coiling mollusc shells.^[2][4]
• 1875 – Larousse records sénestre as a noun for the left side of the shield.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (archaic or literary) left, on the left side: la main senestre.^[2][7]
2. (heraldry) On the sinister side of a shield, the left side for the person bearing it.^[2][4][1]
3. (zoology) Of a shell, coiling from right to left, anticlockwise.^[2][7]

Noun

1. (archaic) The left hand.^[2][4]
2. (heraldry) The left side of the écu.^[2]

Word family

• sénestré
• sénestrochère
• senestrorsum

Related words

• gauche
• sinistre
• dextre
• Latin sinister

Usage notes

The phrase à senestre “to the left” survives in heraldry.^[4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Trésor de la langue française informatisé (2004), ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine, atilf.fr/tlfi; electronic version of Imbs, Paul; Quemada, Bernard, eds. (1971–1994), Trésor de la langue française, Paris: CNRS / Gallimard
3. ^ a b c d Rey, Alain, ed. (2005), Le Grand Robert de la langue française, electronic version, Paris: Le Robert
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
5. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
7. ^ a b c d Guilbert, Louis; Lagane, René; Niobey, Georges, eds. (1971–1978; 1989), Grand Larousse de la langue française, Paris: Larousse