sinister (English)
Where does "sinister" come from?
The word sinister originally came from the Latin term for the 'left hand,' which may have ironically started as a favorable term meaning 'more advantageous.' Over time, classical and medieval superstitions associated the left side with bad luck, leading the word to pass through Old French into Middle English with the meaning of 'unlucky.' This historical bias eventually transformed the word into its modern English sense, describing something evil, dishonest, or threatening.
Full etymology tree
- sinister (English), 'Inauspicious, ominous, unlucky, illegitimate (as in bar sinister).'
- inherited sinistre (Middle English)
- borrowed senestre (Old French), 'left (on the left-hand side)'
- inherited sinistrum (Latin), 'inflection of sinister:'
- derived sinister (Latin), 'left'
- inherited *senisteros (Proto-Italic)
- derived *senh₂-is- (Proto-Indo-European)
- suffix *senh₂- (Proto-Indo-European), 'to obtain'
- derived *senh₂-is- (Proto-Indo-European)
- inherited *senisteros (Proto-Italic)
- derived sinister (Latin), 'left'
- inherited sinistrum (Latin), 'inflection of sinister:'
- borrowed senestre (Old French), 'left (on the left-hand side)'
- inherited sinistre (Middle English)
Direct ancestors
Updated May 2026
Etymology data from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · About Miraris