sinister – English adjective declension

English adjective forms of sinister

Adjective: sinister

Comparison Forms

Synthetic

Perifrastic

Comparativemore sinister
Superlativemost sinister

Sample Sentences

  • bar sinister
  • All the several ills that visit earth / Brought forth by night, with a sinister birth. [1611, Ben[jamin] Jonson, Catiline His Conspiracy, London: […] [William Stansby?] for Walter Burre, →OCLC, (please specify the page):]
  • And in the meanwhile, Society shivered a little feverishly, filled now with the scions of those who had come over with the Jewish and American Conquests. Escutcheons were becoming valueless, how sinister soever the blots and clots upon them. [1922, Michael Arlen, “1/5/1”, in “Piracy”: A Romantic Chronicle of These Days:]
  • sinister influences
  • the sinister atmosphere of the crypt
  • my Mothers bloud / Runs on the dexter checke, and this ſiniſter / Bounds in my fathers: [c. 1602 (date written), 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:]
  • His ſicatrice, with an Embleme of warre, heere on his ſiniſter cheeke; [c. 1604–1605 (date written), William Shakespeare, “All’s Well, that Ends Well”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i], page 235:]
  • Before the train had stopped he had decorated his sinister shirt-cuff with the inscription, ‘J. P. Huddle, The Warren, Tilfield, near Slowborough.’ [1911, Saki, ‘The Unrest-Cure’, The Chronicles of Clovis:]
  • The shield was divided into five, with two coats of arms on the dexter side (the right-hand side from the point of view of the bearer of the shield)—London and Southampton—and three on the sinister side—Salisbury, Winchester and Portsmouth. [1956 July 26, Col. H. C. B. Rogers, “Railway Heraldry”, in Railway Magazine, page 477:]
  • Nimble and sinister tricks and shifts. [1625, Francis [Bacon], “Of Judicature”, in The Essayes […], 3rd edition, London: […] Iohn Haviland for Hanna Barret, →OCLC:]
  • He scorns to undermine another's interest by any sinister or inferior arts. [1667, Robert South, The Practice of Religion Enforced by Reason:]
  • He read in their looks […] sinister intentions directed particularly toward himself. [1822, [Walter Scott], The Pirate. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., →OCLC:]

Etymology

1. Etymology tree
2. Proto-Indo-European *senh₂-
3. Proto-Indo-European *senh₂-is-?
4. Proto-Italic *senisteros
5. Latin sinister
6. Late Latin sinextrum
7. Old French senestrebor.
8. Middle English sinistre
9. English sinister
10. From Middle English sinistre (“unlucky”), from Old French senestre, sinistre (“left”), from Latin sinister (“left hand”). See: Latin Adjectives 'sinister'.