News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:Why does current flow the opposite way from the electrons? by gerdesj on Friday June 21, 2024 @08:08PM (#40755107)
dexter is Latin for right and sinister is left, rotatory is probably rotation and hat fit in with polarization.

Where does levor... come from for left? Perhaps a newer Latin "left" than I was taught?

Re:Why does current flow the opposite way from the electrons? by gravescale on Friday June 21, 2024 @11:34PM (#40756033)
It comes from the Latin "laevus".

Funnily enough, although "sinister" came to mean "the bad side", it may have come from Proto-Indo-European for the "favourable side".

Re:Why does current flow the opposite way from the electrons? by gerdesj on Sunday June 23, 2024 @07:48PM (#40771579)
In politics in the UK, there is a left and right side of the "house". Currently the Conservatives are the right and Labour are the left. Neither party existed when the UK Parliament was initially created.

I wonder whether the old Latin (right == good/left == dodgy) thing has been perpetrated here or it it is coincidental.

I also wonder whether old Latin speakers really had a snag with sinister ie left handers or is that a modern affectation.

Re:Why does current flow the opposite way from the electrons? by ChainOfFools on Saturday June 22, 2024 @01:52AM (#40756648)
Knowing that ambidextrous thus means "both right (hands)" makes me marvel at how such a brazenly politically incorrect figure of speech has for so long remained undetected by the cultural police thanks to a linguistic camoflauge that mimics medical-sounding jargon.