Etymologically
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sinistra

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Pronunciation

  • /siˈnis.tra/[1]

Forms

sinistra f (plural sinistre)[1] An old form is sinestra.[2][3]

Etymology

It is the feminine of the adjective sinistro (“left”) used as a noun, short for the phrases meaning “left hand” and “left side”.[4][5][6][7] The adjective is inherited from Latin sinister (“left”), and Latin already used the feminine sinistra as a noun for “the left hand, the left”.[8][9][1] Wiktionary treats the noun as inherited directly from Latin.[1] The adjective survives in Old Italian sinestro, Old French senestre, Old Occitan senestre and Spanish siniestro.[10][11] Forms with ⟨e⟩ such as this one were remodelled after dexter (“right”).[10]

De Vaan holds that the sense “left” was a later development in Latin, beside the older laevus and scaevus: the word may be a comparative of a root Proto-Indo-European *senh₂- (“to gain”), “the more favourable side”, a euphemism, but he finds the meaning too vague to be sure.[9][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

GRADIT dates the noun to the end of the 13th century, and DEI records the old form sinestra in the 13th century.[6][3] DELI's first record is in Dante, before 1321, for the left hand: in the Inferno the angel clears the thick air from his face menando la sinistra innanzi spesso (“often moving his left hand before him”).[4][12]

Semantic evolution

From the hand the word passed to the side or direction on the left, and at sea to the left side of a ship (1786–1803).[4] The political sense comes from the French Revolution, when the progressive deputies sat to the left of the president of the assembly; in Italian it is recorded in a popular political dictionary of 1851.[4][8]

The adjective sinistro kept the Latin sense “unfavourable, ill-omened”, but the noun did not.[8] Derivatives of the political sense include sinistrismo, sinistroide and sinistrese, the jargon of the left.[6][1]

Timeline

  • Late 13th century – Sinistra (old sinestra) is recorded.[6][3]
  • Before 1321 – Dante uses it for the left hand.[4]
  • 1786–1803 – It is recorded for the port side of a ship.[4]
  • 1851 – It is recorded for the progressive parties in parliament.[4][8]

Meanings

Noun

  1. The left hand: Scrive con la sinistra.[6][7][8]
  2. The left side or direction: Gira a sinistra dopo il ponte.[6][7][8]
  3. (nautical) The left side of a ship, port.[7][8][6]
  4. (politics) The seats to the left of the president in a parliament; the progressive and socialist parties and their members: un governo di sinistra.[6][7][8]
  5. (heraldry) The side of a shield to the right of the viewer.[6]

Word family

  • sinistrismo
  • sinistroide
  • sinistrese
  • ultrasinistra

Usage notes

In military and gymnastic commands it is often clipped, as in fronte a sinistr’![7][6] The opposite is destra.[7]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ Tommaseo, Niccolò; Bellini, Bernardo (1861–1879), Dizionario della lingua italiana, 4 vols., Torino: UTET
  3. ^ a b c Battisti, Carlo; Alessio, Giovanni (1950–1957), Dizionario etimologico italiano, 5 vols., Firenze: Barbèra (reprint 1975), p. 3506
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli
  5. ^ Nocentini, Alberto; Parenti, Alessandro (2010), l'Etimologico: vocabolario della lingua italiana, Firenze: Le Monnier
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j De Mauro, Tullio (ed.) (2003), Grande dizionario italiano dell'uso, CD-ROM version 2.0, Torino: UTET
  7. ^ a b c d e f g Devoto, Giacomo; Oli, Gian Carlo; Serianni, Luca; Trifone, Maurizio (2026), Nuovo Devoto–Oli: il vocabolario dell'italiano contemporaneo, digital ed., Milano: Le Monnier
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h Sabatini, Francesco; Coletti, Vittorio; Manfredini, Manuela (2026), Dizionario italiano Sabatini Coletti, digital ed., Milano: Sansoni / Rizzoli Larousse
  9. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
  10. ^ a b Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
  11. ^ Körting, Gustav (1907), Lateinisch-romanisches Wörterbuch: etymologisches Wörterbuch der romanischen Hauptsprachen, 3rd ed., Paderborn: Schöningh
  12. ^ Battaglia, Salvatore; Bàrberi Squarotti, Giorgio (1961–2002), Grande dizionario della lingua italiana, 21 vols., Torino: UTET; digital ed. Accademia della Crusca