ambidextrous [M17th] As anyone left-handed knows, we live in a right-handed world. The bias towards right-handedness is present in the language too. While the positive word *dexterous or ‘skilful, good with the hands’ comes from the Latin for ‘right-handed’, the rather more negative *sinister comes from the Latin for ‘left-handed’. And if you are ambidextrous, it is as though you have got two right hands: the word is from Latin ambi ‘both, on both sides’ and dexter ‘right, right-handed’. At one time ambidextrous could also be used to mean ‘double-dealing, trying to please both sides’, as in ‘a little, dirty, pimping, pettifogging, ambidextrous fellow’ (Laurence Sterne, 1768).