sinistre Latin · revision 36704

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=derivation|attested=65–8 BC, Horace|origins=la sinister}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * Classical: [sɪˈnɪs.treː]^(Wiktionary)

+ * Ecclesiastical: [siˈnis.tre]^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Forms==

+ '''sinistrē''' (comparative sinistrius, superlative sinistrissimē)^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is [[af|la|sinister|-ē|t1=left; unfavourable]].^(OLD 2012)^(Wiktionary)^(Köbler 2010) De Vaan finds the origin of [[m|la|sinister]] uncertain; a link with [[ine-pro|*senh₂-|t=to obtain]], proposed by Walde and Hofmann, as if “the more favourable side”, he calls gratuitous.^(de Vaan 2008)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ Horace, in the ''Ars poetica'', has it of something received with mockery and ill will (''derisum exceptumque sinistre'').^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ Tacitus uses it of news taken badly: two killings were received unfavourably, and men wrote back unfavourably about the haste of Primus and Varus.^(OLD 2012)^(Georges 1913) Pliny the Younger, in the ''Panegyricus'', has it in the sense “perversely, wrong-headedly”: things are not so wrongly ordered that men who can imitate a bad emperor cannot imitate a good one.^(OLD 2012)^(Georges 1913)

+

+ In British medieval Latin it kept the sense “adversely, wrongly” (of understanding scripture wrongly in Wyclif) and could also mean “on the left hand” and “in an ill-omened way”.^(DMLBS)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * 65–8 BC – Horace uses it of something received unfavourably.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+ * 98–115 AD – Tacitus uses it of news received badly.^(OLD 2012)^(Köbler 2010)

+

+ ==Meanings==

+ ===Adverb===

+ # [[m|en|adversely|alt=Adversely]], [[m|en|unfavourably]].^(OLD 2012)^(Georges 1913)

+ # [[m|en|perversely|alt=Perversely]], wrong-headedly.^(OLD 2012)^(Conte 2010)

+ # ''(Medieval Latin)'' On the left hand.^(DMLBS)

+ # ''(Medieval Latin)'' In an ill-omened manner.^(DMLBS)

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}