dexter

Borrowed from Latin dexter, from Proto-Indo-European *deḱs(i)-teros, from *deḱs- (“right”) (Pokorny, Watkins, 1969; et al.). Compare Epic Greek δεξιτερός (dexiterós, “right hand”), δεξιός (dexiós, “right”), Old Church Slavonic деснъ (desnŭ, “right”).

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈdɛkstə/

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dexter (not comparable)

1. (archaic) Right; on the right-hand side.

   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 606515358, [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; 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.

dexter (plural dexters)

1. (heraldry) The right side of a shield from the wearer's standpoint, and the left side to the viewer.
2. The right hand.

• sinister

• dester (Vulgar or Late Latin, Pompeian inscriptions)

From Proto-Italic *deksiteros, from Proto-Indo-European *deḱsi-tero-s, from *deḱs- (“right”). Cognate with Ancient Greek δεξιός (dexiós), Old High German zesawa (“right hand, right hand side”), Sanskrit दक्षिण (dákṣiṇa).

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

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
3. fortunate, favorable
4. proper, fitting

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

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

• “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, 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
    

Borrowed from Latin dexter.

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

1. dexterous

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