Were you, or was a member of your family, forced to write right-handed at school despite being left-handed? The negative association with left-handedness is an age-old issue. The word sinister, which means "wicked or threatening evil," comes from the Latin word sinister, which means "left" but can also mean "wrong, perverse, unfavorable," because in reading omens from bird flights, birds seen on the left were thought to be omens of misfortune.