Lefter

Part of speech: adjective, noun

Definitions

1. Positioned more toward the left side of something, or holding political views further toward the left than another
2. Situated nearer to the left, or leaning more strongly toward leftist politics than some other person or group
3. Comparatively more to the left in location or in ideological orientation, as a comparison with something else

Etymology: "Lefter" is simply the comparative of "left", meaning more left, so its story is really the story of "left" itself. That word's most surprising origin is that it did not begin as a word for a side at all. In Old English, "lyft" meant "weak, clumsy, foolish", and it appears in "lyftādl", meaning palsy or paralysis. Its distant ancestor is a Proto-Germanic root linked to a verb meaning to castrate or lop off, so the sense of a weakened or hobbled limb came first. A separate "left" came from a different source. In Middle English it was a variant of "laft", meaning remaining, which descends from the Old English past participle of "lǣfan", to leave. The idea was of what was left over, and this sense eventually gave the directional meaning, as the side that remained when the right hand was used for other tasks. The two strands merged into one spelling in Middle English, which is why "left" carries both a sense of clumsiness and a sense of direction.