dexter

See also: Dexter

English

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin dexter (“right”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈdɛks.tə/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈdɛks.tɝ/

• Audio (UK):

  (file)

Adjective

dexter (not comparable)

1. (archaic outside heraldry) Right; on the right-hand side. (In heraldry, specifically the bearer's right, which is the viewer's left.)

   Antonym: sinister

   • c. 1602, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Troylus and Cressida”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene v], column 2:

     my Mothers bloud / Runs on the dexter checke, and this ſiniſter / Bounds in my fathers:

   • 1887, George William Foote with J. M. Wheeler, Crimes of Christianity, London: Progressive Publishing:

     Displaying his dexter palm, he exclaimed that there was a hand that never took a bribe; whereupon a smart auditor cried "How about the one behind your back?"

   • 1911, Saki, ‘The Match-Maker’, The Chronicles of Clovis:

     Clovis wiped the trace of Turkish coffee and the beginnings of a smile from his lips, and slowly lowered his dexter eyelid.

   • 1998 July 6, Auguste Vachon, Claire Boudreau, Daniel Cogné, Genealogica & Heraldica: Ottawa 1996, University of Ottawa Press, →ISBN, page 324:

     […] the dexter lion being gorged  […]

Derived terms

• bend dexter
• dexter chief
• dexterous
• dexterwise

 

Translations

right

• Bulgarian: десен (bg) (desen)
• Danish: højre (da), højre side, dexter (da) (heraldry), heraldisk højre (heraldry)
• Finnish: oikeanpuoleinen (fi)
• German: dexter (de), rechts (de), rechtsseitig (de)
• Italian: destro (it)
• Portuguese: destro (pt) m
• Telugu: కుడి (te) (kuḍi)

Noun

dexter (plural dexters)

1. (archaic outside heraldry) The right side (of a building, an equation, a heraldic shield [from the wearer's perspective], etc).
   • 1879, London Mathematical Society, Proceedings of the London Mathematical Society, page 112:

     Subtracting the second from the first, the third from the second and the first from the third successively, we obtain, after transposition, the following identities: — [several equations]
     But, the sinisters being exact differentials, the dexters are so. Consequently [...]

   • 1971, Debala Mitra, Buddhist Monuments:

     On the dexter of the court is a long hall with an arched ceiling and a door, leading to a small oblong shrine with a vaulted ceiling.

Translations

"right", e.g. in heraldry

• Finnish: oikea (fi)
• Swedish: dexter (sv), heraldisk höger c, höger (sv) c

See also

• sinister

Latin

Alternative forms

• dester (Vulgar or Late Latin, Pompeian inscriptions)

Etymology

From Proto-Italic *deksteros, from Proto-Indo-European *deḱs-tero-s, from *deḱs- (“right”). Cognate with Ancient Greek δεξιτερός (dexiterós), and compare δεξιός (dexiós), Old High German zesawa (“right hand, right hand side”), Sanskrit दक्षिण (dákṣiṇa), Old Church Slavonic деснъ (desnŭ, “right”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /ˈdek.ster/, [ˈd̪ɛks̠t̪ɛr]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /ˈdek.ster/, [ˈd̪ɛkst̪er]

Adjective

dexter (feminine dextra or dextera, neuter dextrum or dexterum, comparative dexterior, superlative dextimus); first/second-declension adjective (nominative masculine singular in -er; two different stems)

1. right (relative direction), right hand

   Antonyms: laevus, scaevus, sinister

2. skillful
   • 29 BCE – 19 BCE, Virgil, Aeneid 2.291–292:

     “‘[...] Sī Pergama dextrā
     dēfendī possent, etiam hāc dēfēnsa fuissent.’”

     [Aeneas dreams of Hector, who tells him to flee, not fight:] “‘If Trojan [towers] could have been defended by [any] skillful [hand], [then] certainly by this [hand of mine] they would have been able to be defended.’”

3. fortunate, favorable
4. proper, fitting

Declension

First/second-declension adjective (nominative masculine singular in -er; two different stems).

Number	Singular				Plural
Case / Gender	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter		Masculine	Feminine	Neuter
Nominative	dexter	dextra dextera	dextrum dexterum		dextrī dexterī	dextrae dexterae	dextra dextera
Genitive	dextrī dexterī	dextrae dexterae	dextrī dexterī		dextrōrum dexterōrum	dextrārum dexterārum	dextrōrum dexterōrum
Dative	dextrō dexterō		dextrō dexterō		dextrīs dexterīs
Accusative	dextrum dexterum	dextram dexteram	dextrum dexterum		dextrōs dexterōs	dextrās dexterās	dextra dextera
Ablative	dextrō dexterō	dextrā dexterā	dextrō dexterō		dextrīs dexterīs
Vocative	dexter	dextra dextera	dextrum dexterum		dextrī dexterī	dextrae dexterae	dextra dextera

Derived terms

• dextere
• dextra, dextera
• dextrāle
• dextrē
• dexteritās
• dextrāle n, dextrāliolum n
• dextrōrsum, dextrōrsus, dextrōversum
• ambidexter

Descendants

• Asturian: diestru
• Catalan: destre
• Dalmatian: diastro
• English: dexter (borrowing)
• Esperanto: dekstra
• French: dêtre (dialectal, archaïc), destre (language of heraldry), dextre (borrowing or revival of the Middle French word)
• Friulian: diestri
• German: Dextrose
• Ido: dextra
• Interlingua: dextre
• Italian: destro
• Norman: dêtre, dêt'e
• Occitan: dèstre
• Old French: destre
• Old Galician-Portuguese: destro
  • Galician: destro
  • Portuguese: destro
• Old Spanish: diestro
  • Spanish: diestro, diestra
• Romanian: dextru (borrowing), zestre
• Sicilian: destru

References

• “dexter”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “dexter”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• dexter in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Carl Meißner, Henry William Auden (1894) Latin Phrase-Book‎^[1], London: Macmillan and Co.
  • (ambiguous) to give one's hand to some one: manum (dextram) alicui porrigere
    
  • (ambiguous) to give one's right hand to some one: dextram alicui porrigere, dare
    
  • (ambiguous) to shake hands with a person: dextram iungere cum aliquo, dextras inter se iungere
    

Romanian

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin dexter.

Adjective

dexter m or n (feminine singular dexteră, masculine plural dexteri, feminine and neuter plural dextere)

1. dexterous

Declension

Declension of dexter

		singular			plural
		masculine	neuter	feminine	masculine	neuter	feminine
nominative/ accusative	indefinite	dexter		dexteră	dexteri	dextere
	definite	dexterul		dextera	dexterii	dexterele
genitive/ dative	indefinite	dexter		dextere	dexteri	dextere
	definite	dexterului		dexterei	dexterilor	dexterelor

References

• dexter in Academia Română, Micul dicționar academic, ediția a II-a, Bucharest: Univers Enciclopedic, 2010. →ISBN