Lefts

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The direction opposite to right, typically indicating a location or movement towards that side
2. The political orientation or ideology that advocates for social equality and government intervention in the economy
3. A term referring to individuals or groups who align with leftist principles, emphasizing progressive reforms and community welfare

Etymology: The plural "lefts" is a little unusual, since the political sense of "left" is normally used as a collective noun ("the left"). Its ancestry is still worth tracing. The adjective "left" began as a word for weakness rather than direction. Old English "lyft" meant "weak, clumsy, foolish," and it appears in "lyftādl," a word for palsy or paralysis. That sense of an limp, useless limb is the root of the modern directional word, and the same Germanic root is linked to ideas of hanging limply and to cutting off or castrating. The directional meaning of "left" came from a different source altogether. It descends from a Middle English form related to "laft," meaning "remaining," from the Old English verb "lǣfan," "to leave." The hand left over after the right was given its job became the "left," and the two strands of meaning ended up in one word by coincidence of form. The political sense comes much later and is not traced in the source, so nothing more is said here about how "lefts" came to denote people.

Synonyms: left turns, left sides

Antonyms: rights, right turns, right sides