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ἀριστερός [α^], ά, όν,
A.left, on the left, ἐπ᾽ ἀριστερά towards, i.e. on, the left, Il.2.526, al.; “ἐπ᾽ ἀριστερὰ χειρός” Od.5.277; “ἐπ᾽ ἀ. χειρῶν” A.R. 2.1266; “ἐξἀριστερῶν” Hp.Epid.2.4.1; ἐν τοῖσι ἀριστεροῖσι ibid.
2. ἀριστερά (with or without χείρ), ἡ, left hand, ἐξ ἀριστερῆς χειρός on the left hand, Hdt.2.30; simply “ἀριστερῆς χ.” Id.4.34; “ἐξ ἀριστερᾶς” S.Ph.20, Pl.Ti.72c, etc.; “οὑξ ἀριστερᾶς . . ναός” S.El.7; ἐς ἀριστερὴν χεῖρα ἤιε, ἐν ἀριστερῇ ἔχειν, Hdt.7.42.
3. metaph., boding ill, ominous, because to a Greek, looking northward, unlucky signs came from the left, “ἀ. ἤλυθεν ὄρνις” Od.20.242.
4. awkward, erring, φρενόθεν ἐπ᾽ ἀριστερὰ ἔβας turnedst to the leftward of thy mind, S.Aj. 182 (lyr.); ἐπ᾽ ἀριστερὰ εἴληφας τὸ πρᾶγμα in a sinister sense, Com.Adesp.22.67 D.; τῷ ἀριστερῷ δέχεσθαι [λόγους] Plu.2.378b. (Prop. 'better', cf. ἄριστος; euphemism (cf. εὐώνυμος) to avoid ill-luck.)
Henry George Liddell. Robert Scott. A Greek-English Lexicon. revised and augmented throughout by. Sir Henry Stuart Jones. with the assistance of. Roderick McKenzie. Oxford. Clarendon Press. 1940.

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  • Cross-references in general dictionaries from this page (11):
    • Herodotus, Histories, 2.30
    • Herodotus, Histories, 4.34
    • Herodotus, Histories, 7.42
    • Homer, Iliad, 2.526
    • Homer, Odyssey, 20.242
    • Homer, Odyssey, 5.277
    • Plato, Timaeus, 72c
    • Sophocles, Ajax, 182
    • Sophocles, Electra, 7
    • Sophocles, Philoctetes, 20
    • Apollonius Rhodius, Argonautica, 2.1266
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