On Feb 14, 2008, at 7:18 PM, Mark Roberts wrote: >> Left in Latin is Sinister.
Trivia lesson of the day: "Sinistra", not sinister. The word sinister is derived from sinistra... Roman battle gear was designed for squadrons of right handed shield bearers. Left-handed shield bearers caused the possibility of attack to an unguarded flank, that's why sinistra became associated with "bad" or evil. I remember translating the tale of Mucius Scaevola, a left handed soldier in the Roman army, who distinguished himself by taking advantage of his opposite handed-ness to protect his commander in unusual circumstances way back when in Latin IV classes. It was quite unusual for them to sing the praise of a left-handed soldier! :-) G -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
