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!]
