different between perilous vs sinister

English

Alternative forms

• perelles (obsolete)
• perillous (archaic)
• perlous (obsolete)
• per'lous (poetic)

Etymology

From Middle English perilous, from Old French perilleus, from the noun peril, or from Latin per?cul?sus. Doublet of periculous.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?p??.?.l?s/, /p??.l?.?s/

Adjective

perilous (comparative more perilous, superlative most perilous)

1. Dangerous, full of peril.

Derived terms

• perilously

Related terms

Translations

Middle English

Alternative forms

• perillous, perelous, perlious, pereilous, perlous, perylous, perylus, periluse

Etymology

From Old French perilleus, from Latin per?cul?sus; equivalent to peril +? -ous.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?p?r(i)lu?s/, /?par(i)lu?s/

Adjective

perilous (plural and weak singular perilouse, superlative perilousest)

1. Full of danger or peril; dangerous, harmful, periculous:
   1. Fatal, mortal; potentially resulting in death.
   2. Scary, frightening; inducing horror and psychological damage.
   3. (Late Middle English) Religiously harmful or hurtful
   4. (Late Middle English) Unfortunate; experiencing bad luck.

Descendants

• English: perilous, parlous
• Scots: perilous (obsolete)

References

• “peril?us, adj.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2018-07-15.

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)

1. Inauspicious, ominous, unlucky, illegitimate (as in bar sinister).

   • All the several ills that visit earth, / Brought forth by night, with a sinister birth.
2. Evil or seemingly evil; indicating lurking danger or harm.

   sinister influences

   the sinister atmosphere of the crypt

3. 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.’

4. (heraldry) On the left side of a shield from the wearer's standpoint, and the right side to the viewer.
5. (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.

Antonyms

• (of the right side): dexter
• (heraldry): dexter

Derived terms

Translations

Anagrams

• insister, resistin, sinistre

Dutch

Pronunciation

Adjective

sinister (comparative sinisterder, superlative sinisterst)

1. sinister

Inflection

German

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /zi?n?st?/

Adjective

sinister (comparative sinisterer, superlative am sinistersten)

1. 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)

1. left

   Synonyms: laevus, scaevus

   Antonym: dexter

2. perverse, bad; or adverse, hostile
   • 1st BC, Virgilius

     mores sinistri

     arboribus Notus sinister

3. (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

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