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OP
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enthusiast
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enthusiast
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>> Why should someone who can use both hands equally well be said to have two right hands?
If we take word etymologies literally, then the "two right hands" definition would seem absurd. If, however, we view the "dextrous" in its more figurative sense of skillfulness with one's hands, then the word histroy works quite well.
Left handers are not strictly "sinister," nor are right-handers always dexterous. Frankly, I'm glad language is so colorful in its imagery and metaphor.
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Carpal Tunnel
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you certainly won't appreciate this, but ambisinistrous exists as a word -- its meaning (of course) is "clumsy, maladroit; the opposite of ambidextrous". supposedly this usage came out of hospital operating rooms. 
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Carpal Tunnel
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Max,
Left on!! (from a fellow southpaw, who also notices these slights[sic]-of-hand with great harrumphing)
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Carpal Tunnel
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In reply to:
no one has suggested PC alternatives for words such as "gauche," "maladroit," "ambidextrous" etc. Such terms are just as blatantly negative in their derivation and connotation as other words now considered non-U.
Just a thought but words don't come much less PC than U and non-U, surely? 
Bingley
Bingley
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OP
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where and when were "U and non-U" coined?
(this one is not so easy to search for! :)
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Carpal Tunnel
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today's dictionary.com word-of-the-day is gauche, for which the following is given as commentary:
The left side of anything is often considered to be unlucky or bad, and our
language reflects this. A "left-handed compliment," one that is insincere,
backhanded, or dubious, is not one you are happy to receive; a "left-handed
oath" is one not intended to be binding. Sinister, Latin for left, suggests
or threatens evil. Gauche is tactless, awkward and clumsy, but droit, the
French word for right, gives us adroit, skillful, and dexter, the Latin for
right, gives us dexterous (also meaning skillful). If you are ambidextrous,
able to use both hands with equal facility, then, etymologically speaking,
you have right hands on both sides (ambi-, on both sides). Left itself
comes from Old English lyft, left, weak, useless, since it names that hand
which in most people is weaker.
so, we are left(!) to draw our own conclusions....
[is the appearance of this word now just a coincidence? I think not!]
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>so, we are left(!) to draw our own conclusions..
I say here at work quite often that being clueless on the job is like the German national airline: The Right hansa doesn't know what the Lufthansa is doing.
TEd
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