左手的那個左
貼在身體上的「左」:慣用左手的人,以及為左手做的東西。
noun · B1
Someone who writes, throws, cuts or plays sport with their left hand. It is a friendly, informal word, used most in American and Canadian English.
左撇子
Take the plain word left and stick the small friendly ending -y on it, the way doggy comes from dog. What you get is a quick, casual label for someone or something that belongs on the left side. English uses left for two very different left sides: the hand you write with, and the side of . Lefty follows the word into both, and keeps the relaxed, off-hand tone of that little -y in each.
The packet's Wiktionary entries derive both the noun and the adjective as left + -y (nominal suffix / adjectival suffix).
資料來源把名詞和形容詞都記成 left 加上 -y(一個構成名詞、一個構成形容詞)。這條線索正好說明它為什麼一直很口語:加上 -y 之後,字的味道就從中性變成隨口。
Wiktionary via packet evidence (kaikki:3f6f69a190036ae4:1185486270 and :1185498881): From left + -y.
Two branches
左手的那個左
貼在身體上的「左」:慣用左手的人,以及為左手做的東西。
noun · B1
Someone who writes, throws, cuts or plays sport with their left hand. It is a friendly, informal word, used most in American and Canadian English.
左撇子
政治光譜上的那個左
同一個 left,換一個場域:不是身體的左邊,而是政治上的左邊。共用的是「靠左」這個方位說法,以及 -y 帶來的口語口氣。
noun · B2
Someone with left-wing political ideas. The speaker is usually putting the person down or at least teasing them, so it is not a neutral label. It is informal, and used most in British English.
左派人士(帶貶意)