Another Day, Another Word

Today's word:

Sinister [sin-uh-ster]

Here is another word that has changed its meaning over time. The current definitions are:

adjective
1. threatening or portending evil, harm, or trouble; ominous: a sinister remark.
2. bad, evil, base, or wicked; fell: his sinister purposes.
3. unfortunate; disastrous; unfavourable: a sinister accident.
4. of or on the left side; left.
5. Heraldry. noting the side of an escutcheon or achievement of arms that is to the left of the bearer, as opposed to dexter (apologies for those dealing with dexter case for bringing the word up here...) meaning right side.

Sinister came into use in English in the late middle ages, 1450ish. What I find interesting is that, while the spelling we get of the word comes from Latin ( via French), the association it has with bad, evil etc actually comes from the ancient Greek usage. Both cultures used the word to mean left. The Greeks also used it to describe an 'evil omen' because they would always face north to make a reading of the portents. Apparently if a bird was seen in the west, thus the left side, it was bad.

Don't ask me why, it just was. One the other hand (not the topical word play...) the Romans saw the left side as fortunate.

So we have the Roman spelling but the Greek meaning.