English

Proper noun

Dexter

1. An occupational surname​ for a female dyer.
2. Any of a number of places in the U.S.A. and Canada, named for persons with the surname.
3. A male given name transferred from the surname.
   • 1969 Coretta Scott King, My Life with Martin Luther King, Jr, Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, pages 204-205:

     I was in Atlanta with our three children — our second son, Dexter, named for our beloved church in Montgomery, had been born in January, and was still an infant.

Translations

Noun

Dexter ‎(plural Dexters)

1. One of a breed of small hardy cattle originating from the Kerry breed of Ireland, valuable for beef and milk. They are usually chiefly black, sometimes red, and somewhat resemble a small shorthorn in build.

Portuguese

Etymology

Borrowing from English Dexter.

Pronunciation

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈdɛksteʁ/

Proper noun

Dexter m

1. A male given name, equivalent to English Dexter

English

Adjective

dexter ‎(not comparable)

1. Right; on the right-hand side.
   • 1887, George William Foote; J. M. Wheeler, Crimes of Christianity, London: Progressive Publishing:

     Displaying his dexter palm, he exclaimed that there was a hand that never took a bribe; whereupon a smart auditor cried "How about the one behind your back?"

   • 1911, Saki, ‘The Match-Maker’, The Chronicles of Clovis:

     Clovis wiped the trace of Turkish coffee and the beginnings of a smile from his lips, and slowly lowered his dexter eyelid.

Translations

Noun

dexter ‎(plural dexters)

1. (heraldry) The right side of a shield from the wearer's standpoint, and the left side to the viewer.
2. right hand

See also

• sinister

Latin

Etymology

From Proto-Italic *deksteros, from Proto-Indo-European *deḱs-. Cognates include Ancient Greek δεξιός ‎(dexiós) and Sanskrit दक्षिण ‎(dákṣiṇa).

Adjective

dexter m ‎(feminine dextra or dextera, neuter dextrum or dexterum); first/second declension

1. right (relative direction), right hand
2. skillful
3. fortunate, favorable
4. proper, fitting

Inflection

First/second declension, nominative masculine singular in -er.

or

First/second declension, nominative masculine singular in -er.

Antonyms

• laevus
• sinister

Derived terms

• dextere
• dextrē
• dexteritas
• dextrale n, dextraliolum n
• dextrorsum, dextrorsus, dextroversum
• ambidexter

Related terms

• dextral

Descendants

References

• dexter in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• dexter in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• Félix Gaffiot (1934), “dexter”, in Dictionnaire Illustré Latin-Français, Paris: Hachette.
• Meissner, Carl; Auden, Henry William (1894) Latin Phrase-Book, London: Macmillan and Co.
  • (ambiguous) to give one's hand to some one: manum (dextram) alicui porrigere
    
  • (ambiguous) to give one's right hand to some one: dextram alicui porrigere, dare
    
  • (ambiguous) to shake hands with a person: dextram iungere cum aliquo, dextras inter se iungere