Ambilevous

Pronunciation

• RP IPA: /ˌæmbɪˈliːvÉ™s/

Alternative forms

• ambilævous

• ambilaevous

Origin

First attested in English in 1646

“ambidextrous” listed in the Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper

from Latin ambilaevus (ambi- ("both") + laevus ("left"))

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.

, a calque of Ancient Greek ἀμφαρίστερος (ampharisteros, "with two left hands, awkward, clumsy")

On page 35 of Left-handedness: Laterality Characteristics and Their Educational Implications (University of London Press, 1957) by Margaret MacDonald Clark, it is asserted that “In describing these cases, Galen (quoted by Orton) coined the word ‘ambilevous’, to imply having two left hands, to exclude the idea of skill connoted by the term ‘ambidextrous’.”; however the said Ancient Greek root term ἀμφαρίστερος also occurs in a fragment of a non-surviving play by the dramatist Aristophanes (who lived circa 456–386 BC — around six hundred years before (circa 129–200 CE)), so Galen cannot have been its coiner.

from ἀμφί (amphi, "on both sides") + ἀριστερός (aristeros, "left").

Full definition of ambilevous

Adjective

1. (rare) Having equally bad ability in both hands; clumsy; butterfingered.
• 1646: Sir Thomas Browne and Nath Ekins, Pseudodoxia Epidemica (1658 republication), page 164Again, Some are Ἀμφαριστεροὶ as Galen hath expreÅ¿Å¿ed : that is, Ambilevous or left-handed on both Å¿ides; Å¿uch as with agility and vigour have not the uÅ¿e of either : who are not gymnaÅ¿tically compoÅ¿ed : nor actively uÅ¿e thoÅ¿e parts. Now in theÅ¿e there is no right hand : of this conÅ¿titution are many women, and Å¿ome men, who though they accuÅ¿tome themÅ¿elves unto either hand, do dexterouÅ¿ly make uÅ¿e of neither.
• 1953: The Pediatric Clinics of North America, page 607 (W.B. Saunders Co.)Whereas the ambidextrous person is regarded as one who is capable of using both hands with equal dexterity, there are others, referred to as ambilevous, who use both hands equally awkwardly.
• 1960: Harry Bakwin and Ruth Mae Morris Bakwin, Clinical Management of Behavior Disorders in Children, page 330 (Saunders)The ambilevous (the opposite of ambidextrous) child is unable to use either hand more skillfully than the other, but is equally awkward in the use of each.
• 1998: Yoav Ariel, Shlomo Biderman, and Ornan Rotem, Relativism and Beyond, page 262 (BRILL; ISBN 9004109307)I as a right-handed person do not have the option of becoming genuinely ambidextrous, literally one with ‘two right hands’. And I surely must guard against sinking into one is who is doubly left-handed, or ambilevous. (We may notice the prejudice uncovered by etymology.) But I can, by will and practice, lessen the native inferiority of my weaker side.

Antonyms

• ambidextrous

Synonyms

• ambisinistrous