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sinistrorse / dextrorse
Oct. 28th, 2016 07:51 amsinistrorse (SIN-uh-strawrs, si-NIS-trawrs, sin-uh-STRAWRS) - adj., growing upward in a spiral that turns from right to left (when viewed from above).
dextrorse (DEK-strawrs, dek-STRAWRS) - adj., growing upward in a spiral that turns from left to right (when viewed from above).
So when used of a vine, climbing counterclockwise or clockwise, respectively. Thought ostensibly mathematical, primarily used in botany. Both were borrowed around 1860 from Latin, in the one case from sinistrĊrsus, literally, turned leftwards, contraction of *sinistriversus, from sinister, left + versus, past participle of vertere, to turn -- in the other, from dextrorsum, toward the right, earlier dextrĊvorsum, from dexter, right + vorsum, accusative of vorsus, variant of the same versus as above. So not quite parallel constructions.
The music for these words is, of course, "Misalliance" by Flanders & Swann.
---L.
dextrorse (DEK-strawrs, dek-STRAWRS) - adj., growing upward in a spiral that turns from left to right (when viewed from above).
So when used of a vine, climbing counterclockwise or clockwise, respectively. Thought ostensibly mathematical, primarily used in botany. Both were borrowed around 1860 from Latin, in the one case from sinistrĊrsus, literally, turned leftwards, contraction of *sinistriversus, from sinister, left + versus, past participle of vertere, to turn -- in the other, from dextrorsum, toward the right, earlier dextrĊvorsum, from dexter, right + vorsum, accusative of vorsus, variant of the same versus as above. So not quite parallel constructions.
The music for these words is, of course, "Misalliance" by Flanders & Swann.
---L.
