different between awful vs sinister
awful
English
Alternative forms
- awfull (archaic), aweful (obsolete), awefull (obsolete)
Etymology
From Middle English agheful, awfull, auful, a?efull, equivalent to awe +? -ful. Compare Old English e?eful, e?efull (“terrifying; awful”).
Pronunciation
- (UK) IPA(key): /???f?l/, /???f?l/
- (General American) IPA(key): /??f?l/
- (cot–caught merger) IPA(key): /??f?l/
- Rhymes: -??f?l
- Homophone: offal (some accents)
Adjective
awful (comparative awfuller or more awful, superlative awfullest or most awful)
- Very bad.
- My socks smell awful.
- We saw such an awful film last night that we left the theater before the end.
- Exceedingly great; usually applied intensively.
- an awful bonnet
- I have learnt an awful amount today.
- (now dated) Causing fear or horror; appalling, terrible.
- 1839, J. Sheridan Le Fanu, Schalken the Painter
- There was an air of gravity and importance about the garb of the person, and something indescribably odd, I might say awful, in the perfect, stonelike stillness of the figure, that effectually checked the testy comment which had at once risen to the lips of the irritated artist.
- 1839, J. Sheridan Le Fanu, Schalken the Painter
- (now rare) Inspiring awe; filling with profound reverence or respect; profoundly impressive.
- 1819, Lord Byron, Don Juan, II.143:
- And then she stopped, and stood as if in awe / (For sleep is awful) […].
- 1819, Lord Byron, Don Juan, II.143:
- (now rare) Struck or filled with awe.
- (obsolete) Terror-stricken.
- Worshipful; reverential; law-abiding.
Synonyms
- See also Thesaurus:frightening
Derived terms
- awfulness
- awfully
Translations
Adverb
awful (not comparable)
- (colloquial) Awfully; dreadfully; terribly.
- (colloquial, US, Canada) Very, extremely.
- That's an awful big house.
- She seemed awful nice when I met her yesterday.
- He was blubbering away something awful.
Translations
See also
- awfully
Further reading
- awful in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
- awful in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
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sinister
English
Alternative forms
- sinistre (obsolete)
Etymology
From Middle English sinistre (“unlucky”), from Old French sinistra (“left”), from Latin sinestra (“left hand”).
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /?s?n?st?/
- (US) IPA(key): /?s?n?st?/
- Accented on the middle syllable by the older poets, such as Shakespeare, Milton, and Dryden.
Adjective
sinister (comparative more sinister, superlative most sinister)
- Inauspicious, ominous, unlucky, illegitimate (as in bar sinister).
- All the several ills that visit earth, / Brought forth by night, with a sinister birth.
- Evil or seemingly evil; indicating lurking danger or harm.
- sinister influences
- the sinister atmosphere of the crypt
- Of the left side.
- 1911, Saki, ‘The Unrest-Cure’, The Chronicles of Clovis:
- Before the train had stopped he had decorated his sinister shirt-cuff with the inscription, ‘J. P. Huddle, The Warren, Tilfield, near Slowborough.’
- 1911, Saki, ‘The Unrest-Cure’, The Chronicles of Clovis:
- (heraldry) On the left side of a shield from the wearer's standpoint, and the right side to the viewer.
- (obsolete) Wrong, as springing from indirection or obliquity; perverse; dishonest.
- 1612, Francis Bacon, Of Judicature
- Nimble and sinister tricks and shifts.
- 1667, Robert South, The Practice of Religion Enforced by Reason
- He scorns to undermine another's interest by any sinister or inferior arts.
- 1612, Francis Bacon, Of Judicature
Antonyms
- (of the right side): dexter
- (heraldry): dexter
Derived terms
Translations
Anagrams
- insister, resistin, sinistre
Dutch
Pronunciation
Adjective
sinister (comparative sinisterder, superlative sinisterst)
- sinister
Inflection
German
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /zi?n?st?/
Adjective
sinister (comparative sinisterer, superlative am sinistersten)
- sinister
Declension
Latin
Etymology
From Proto-Italic *senisteros, of unknown origin, but possibly from a euphemism from the same Proto-Indo-European root as Sanskrit ??????? (san?y?n, “more useful, more advantageous”).
Pronunciation
- (Classical) IPA(key): /si?nis.ter/, [s???n?s?t??r]
- (Ecclesiastical) IPA(key): /si?nis.ter/, [si?nist??r]
Adjective
sinister (feminine sinistra, neuter sinistrum); first/second-declension adjective (nominative masculine singular in -er)
- left
- Synonyms: laevus, scaevus
- Antonym: dexter
- perverse, bad; or adverse, hostile
- 1st BC, Virgilius
- mores sinistri
- arboribus Notus sinister
- 1st BC, Virgilius
- (religion) auspicious (for Romans) or inauspicious (for Greeks)
- 1st BC, Virgilius
- sinistra cornix, good omen
- 2nd century, Apuleius
- sinistro pede profectus, started with bad omen
- 1st BC, Virgilius
Declension
First/second-declension adjective (nominative masculine singular in -er).
Descendants
References
- sinister in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
- sinister in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
- Castiglioni-Mariotti, IL
sinister From the web:
- what sinister means
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