A.Word.A.Day --ambisinister

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Aug 22, 2008

This week's theme
Words for physical characteristics used to describe people figuratively

This week's words
louche
clochard
myopic
dexterous
ambisinister

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A.Word.A.Day

with Anu Garg

ambisinister

PRONUNCIATION:

(am-bi-SIN-uh-stuhr)

MEANING:

adjective: Clumsy with both hands. (Literally, with two left hands.)

ETYMOLOGY:

From Latin ambi- (both) + sinister (on the left side).

USAGE:

"Professor Fischer says that the reserve physicians 'were surgically ambisinister, medically at the zero point, and lacking in discipline, military skill and temperance.'"
The Military Surgeon; Harvard University; 1914.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

It is impossible to imagine Goethe or Beethoven being good at billiards or golf. -H.L. Mencken, writer, editor, and critic (1880-1956)

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