dexter

Dexter has two sets of endings, both classical and both in this corpus: the contracted dexter, dextra, dextrum and the fuller dexter, dextera, dexterum. The comparative dexterior and superlative dextimus exist but are rare.

The feminine on its own, dextra or dextera with manus understood, simply means the right hand, and dextram dare is to give a pledge. The second sense is religious. In Roman augury the right was the lucky side, so dexter also means favourable, and its opposite sinister means unlucky as well as left. English inherited the whole judgement without questioning it, in dextrous, adroit and ambidextrous on one side, and sinister on the other.