There are a host of unfavourable sayings in English associated with the left side, like two left feet and left-handed compliment. Traditionally it was thought to be unlucky if a baby gripped with the left hand before the right, if a cuckoo (already an unlucky bird) called on the left, and black magic was referred to in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries as "the left-hand path".
As in many other cultures, the folklore of Britain favours right-handedness over left. Unlike many non-European cultures it's not thought to be "unclean", merely inferior. The word left itself comes from the Old English lyft meaning "weak, or foolish", and left-handed people are sinistral (a opposed to the right-handed dextral), with its links to the word sinister.
There are a host of unfavourable sayings in English associated with the left side, like two left feet and left-handed compliment. Traditionally it was thought to be unlucky if a baby gripped with the left hand before the right, if a cuckoo (already an unlucky bird) called on the left, and black magic was referred to in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries as "the left-hand path".
CL Holland
15/4/2013 11:01:38 am
A common euphemism for it here in the UK is being "cack-handed", which apparently has a similar root to the word left (only from Old Norse).
CL Holland
15/4/2013 10:59:13 am
They were still trying to make lefties be righties in the 1980s - a teacher tried it on me until my parents told her to pack it in! Comments are closed.
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