Chrysti the Wordsmith > Radio Scripts

The left side has been associated with calamity, evil, and clumsiness in almost every culture. The Latin word for left is sinister; in French it's gauche, and the German linkisch means both "left" and "clumsy". The modern English word left comes from the ancient Germanic term lyft meaning "broken". A left-handed compliment is a thinly veiled insult, and if you got up on the wrong side of the bed, you have arisen from your mattress on the left, the side which surely brings misadventure.

In the roster of all the biased etymologies aimed at left-handers, the moniker southpaw may be the kindest of all. For over a century, American lefties have been bethumped with this good-natured nickname.

It's source is the game of baseball. Robert A. Palmatier and Harold L. Ray, editors of Sports Talk, A Dictionary of Sports Metaphors have tracked its birthplace to Chicago's Comisky Park. Pitchers playing that field faced west. A left hander, therefore, threw the ball with the hand or "paw" that pointed south. Finley Peter Dunne, humorist and sports writer for the Chicago News is credited for inventing the whimsical title southpaw in the 1880's.

Radio Script > Southpaw