left

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   On the side of the body where the heart is; the opposite of right.

   Raise your left hand.

2. 2
   noun

   The left side or a turn in that direction.

   Take a left at the corner.

3. 3
   adj

   Relating to the political left; left-wing.

   The party holds firmly left views on the economy.

Appears in

Simplified etymology

Left is an Old English word whose original central sense was “weak.” The left side was characterized this way because most people are right-handed and it was therefore regarded as the weaker side; the political sense arose from seating arrangements in the French National Assembly of 1789.

From Middle English left, luft, leoft, lift, lyft, from Old English left, lyft (“weak, clumsy, foolish”), attested in Old English lyftādl (“palsy, paralysis”), from Proto-Germanic *luft-, from *lubjaną (“to castrate, lop off”) (compare dialectal English lib, West Frisian lobje, Dutch lubben), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)lewp-, *(s)lup- (“hanging limply”). Compare Scots left (“left”), North Frisian lefts, leeft, leefts (“left”), West Frisian lofts (“left”), obsolete Dutch lucht, leftsch, lefts, lefs (“left”), dialectal Dutch loof (“weak, worthless”), archaic Low German lucht (“left”).

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External links

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• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary