Pylimitics

As some people (including you) know, “adroit,” which means adept and agile, is etymologically derived from the French phrase “á droit” (to the right). For some reason the French (I suspect they weren’t alone in this) used to think that being right-handed meant that you were capable of being adept, agile, graceful, and coordinated, and that’s where the word came from.

But left-right bias goes further than that. “Gauche” is an English word meaning awkward or lacking manners. It entered English in the 1700s from (guess what) French, where it meant “to the left.” Back in the Middle Ages the left was associated with evil, while the right was associated with good. “Sinister” is another word based on that superstition; it comes from the Latin “sinistra” (left), but after entering English began to mean “bad” or “evil” as early as the 1400s:

“Contynuyn in habundaunce of goodes and havour, to their sinister pleasure.” (from the 1474 Rolls of Parliament)

The whole thing might be the Romans’ fault. “Auspices” is an English word meaning either sponsorship or favorable omens, and it comes from the Latin “auspicium,” which was their (entirely logical and scientific) idea that you could figure out the future by watching birds. (As an aside, it remains a mystery how the Romans managed to create and sustain a whole culture while being, in many ways, absurdly kooky.) To be fair, the ancient Greeks also did the bird-watching thing, calling it “ornithomancy.” Part of this bird-brained prediction technique was to pay attention to where the birds flew (relative to you, of course) — if they flew past on your right, that was good, but if they flew past on your left, that was a bad omen. (Evidently it never occurred to anyone to just turn around and face the other way.) 

Speaking of the Greeks, by the way, the early Greek word for left was “skaios,” which was the basis of the Latin “scaevus.” This came from the Proto-Indo-European root meaning “shadow” (the English word “shadow” comes later in that same progression), while the words in a number of European language for “right-hand side” has the same meaning as “south.” This seems to be related to the very ancient custom of the Indo Europeans to orient themselves to the east because that’s where the sun rises. These folks lived in the Northern Hemisphere (whether they knew it or not), and that means the sun is not only to the east, but always to the south as well. Thus when you faced directly east, your shadow would be on your left side — the “dark” side. 

Another medieval association between left and bad can be seen in heraldry, which was really a way to communicate family trees and social status in the days when hardly anybody could actually read. There was a common heraldry mark called the “bar sinister” or “bend sinister.” It wasn’t specifically evil; it seems to have been just informational, indicating illegitimacy. However, as the family in question became more socially or politically prominent, the legitimate heirs would necessarily view the illegitimate ones as threats — “sinister” individuals for sure. Once again, depending on your perspective.