Left in Different Languages
Discover 'Left' in 134 Languages: Dive into Translations, Hear Pronunciations, and Uncover Cultural Insights.
Left
Afrikaans links | ||
Albanian u largua | ||
Amharic ግራ | ||
Arabic اليسار | ||
Armenian ձախ | ||
Assamese বাওঁ | ||
Aymara ch'iqa | ||
Azerbaijani sol | ||
Bambara numan | ||
Basque ezkerretara | ||
Belarusian злева | ||
Bengali বাম | ||
Bhojpuri छोड़ देलन | ||
Bosnian lijevo | ||
Bulgarian наляво | ||
Catalan a l'esquerra | ||
Cebuano sa wala | ||
Chinese (Simplified) 剩下 | ||
Chinese (Traditional) 剩下 | ||
Corsican manca | ||
Croatian lijevo | ||
Czech vlevo, odjet | ||
Danish venstre | ||
Dhivehi ވާތް | ||
Dogri छड्डो | ||
Dutch links | ||
English left | ||
Esperanto maldekstre | ||
Estonian vasakule | ||
Ewe mia me | ||
Filipino (Tagalog) umalis | ||
Finnish vasemmalle | ||
French la gauche | ||
Frisian links | ||
Galician á esquerda | ||
Georgian მარცხენა | ||
German links | ||
Greek αριστερά | ||
Guarani asu | ||
Gujarati ડાબી | ||
Haitian Creole kite | ||
Hausa hagu | ||
Hawaiian hema | ||
Hebrew שמאלה | ||
Hindi बाएं | ||
Hmong sab laug | ||
Hungarian bal | ||
Icelandic vinstri | ||
Igbo ekpe | ||
Ilocano kannigid | ||
Indonesian kiri | ||
Irish ar chlé | ||
Italian sinistra | ||
Japanese 左 | ||
Javanese kiwa | ||
Kannada ಎಡ | ||
Kazakh сол | ||
Khmer ឆ្វេង | ||
Kinyarwanda ibumoso | ||
Konkani दावें | ||
Korean 왼쪽 | ||
Krio dɔn go | ||
Kurdish çep | ||
Kurdish (Sorani) چەپ | ||
Kyrgyz сол | ||
Lao ຊ້າຍ | ||
Latin sinistram | ||
Latvian pa kreisi | ||
Lingala loboko ya mwasi | ||
Lithuanian paliko | ||
Luganda kkono | ||
Luxembourgish lénks | ||
Macedonian лево | ||
Maithili बामा | ||
Malagasy anka | ||
Malay dibiarkan | ||
Malayalam ഇടത്തെ | ||
Maltese xellug | ||
Maori maui | ||
Marathi डावीकडे | ||
Meiteilon (Manipuri) ꯂꯦꯝꯍꯧꯕ | ||
Mizo kalsan | ||
Mongolian зүүн | ||
Myanmar (Burmese) ကျန်ခဲ့တယ် | ||
Nepali बाँया | ||
Norwegian venstre | ||
Nyanja (Chichewa) kumanzere | ||
Odia (Oriya) ବାମ | ||
Oromo bitaa | ||
Pashto کی | ||
Persian ترک کرد | ||
Polish lewo | ||
Portuguese (Portugal, Brazil) esquerda | ||
Punjabi ਖੱਬੇ | ||
Quechua lluqi | ||
Romanian stânga | ||
Russian осталось | ||
Samoan taumatau | ||
Sanskrit वामः | ||
Scots Gaelic clì | ||
Sepedi nngele | ||
Serbian лево | ||
Sesotho ka ho le letšehali | ||
Shona ruboshwe | ||
Sindhi کاٻو | ||
Sinhala (Sinhalese) වමට | ||
Slovak vľavo | ||
Slovenian levo | ||
Somali bidix | ||
Spanish izquierda | ||
Sundanese kénca | ||
Swahili kushoto | ||
Swedish vänster | ||
Tagalog (Filipino) umalis na | ||
Tajik чап | ||
Tamil இடது | ||
Tatar сулда | ||
Telugu ఎడమ | ||
Thai ซ้าย | ||
Tigrinya ፀጋም | ||
Tsonga ximatsi | ||
Turkish ayrıldı | ||
Turkmen çep | ||
Twi (Akan) benkum | ||
Ukrainian ліворуч | ||
Urdu بائیں | ||
Uyghur left | ||
Uzbek chap | ||
Vietnamese trái | ||
Welsh chwith | ||
Xhosa khohlo | ||
Yiddish לינקס | ||
Yoruba osi | ||
Zulu kwesokunxele |
Etymology & Notes
| Language | Etymology / Notes |
|---|---|
| Afrikaans | The word "links" in Afrikaans has different etymological and alternate meanings, including "sinister" and "awkward". |
| Albanian | The word "u largua" originally meant "the outside" or "the open" in Proto-Albanian. |
| Amharic | Alternate meanings of "ግራ" include "west" and "direction facing west." |
| Arabic | "اليسار" (the left) comes from the Quranic "yusra" (ease, good fortune), which could describe the ease left-handed people had in battles fought right-handedly. |
| Armenian | The Armenian word "ձախ" has cognates in other Indo-European languages such as Persian, Sanskrit, and Avestan |
| Azerbaijani | Sol is also used as a name for the left-hand side of something, such as a road or a river. |
| Basque | "Ezkerretara" (left) comes from "ezker" (left-hand side), and "-tara" (direction towards). |
| Belarusian | In the Mozyr dialect, "злева" is used both for "left" in space and for "sinister" in morality. |
| Bengali | The word "বাম" can also mean "red" or "Marxist" in Bengali. |
| Bosnian | In Croatian, the word "lijevo" means both "left" and "beautiful". |
| Bulgarian | The Bulgarian word "наляво" (left) also means "to the wrong side," "to the bad side," and "to the wrong way." |
| Catalan | "A l'esquerra" literally means "the left-hand side" but is also used to refer to the political left. |
| Cebuano | "Sa wala" (left) in Cebuano can also mean "not right" or "wrong." |
| Chinese (Simplified) | 剩下 is an abbreviation of the verb "留下来" which means "to remain". 剩下 now usually means "to be left". |
| Chinese (Traditional) | The word "剩下" can also mean "remaining" or "leftovers" when referring to food or objects. |
| Corsican | Manca is a term in Corsican that can also mean 'bad' or 'inauspicious'. |
| Croatian | The word "lijevo" also means "beautiful" or "pretty" in Croatian. |
| Czech | The word `vlevo` also means `from the left` |
| Danish | In Danish, "venstre" can also be used colloquially to refer to the left-wing political spectrum. |
| Dutch | In Dutch, "links" means "left," but in some contexts it can also mean "connected" or "related." |
| Esperanto | The word "maldekstre" (left) in Esperanto derives from the Latin word "malus" (bad) and "dexter" (right), signifying the opposite of "right". |
| Estonian | In Estonian, "vasakule" has additional meanings: "incorrectly" and "wrongly". |
| Finnish | The Finnish word "vasemmalle" originates from the Proto-Uralic root *vośem, meaning "morning" or "east", and still has the archaic meaning of "eastward" or "northward" in Karelian. |
| French | The French word "la gauche" traces its origins to "gauche" meaning "clumsy" or "awkward" in Old French. |
| Frisian | In Saterland Frisian, "links" can mean "left" in the sense of "unskillful, awkward, or not clever." |
| Galician | The Galician word "á esquerda" also means "wrong" or "incorrect". |
| Georgian | The word |
| German | In the 18th century, the meaning of "links" was also "right", and only became "left" later. |
| Greek | The word 'αριστερά' ('left') in Greek is derived from the Greek word 'άριστος' ('best') and originally meant 'the side of honor'. |
| Gujarati | Gujarati word "ડાબી" derives from Sanskrit "dakṣina" meaning "south", as left is the direction towards the south in Sanskrit |
| Haitian Creole | "Kite" in Haitian Creole also means "right" when describing the political spectrum. |
| Hausa | The Hausa word for "left" is also used in some dialects to mean "south." |
| Hawaiian | In the Hawaiian language, "hema" is also used as a verb meaning "to turn left" or as a noun meaning "the left side of the body"} |
| Hebrew | The word 'שמאלה' in Hebrew also means 'to the weak side' |
| Hindi | The word "बाएं" can also refer to the left-hand side, the side of the body that is opposite the right-hand side. |
| Hmong | The Hmong word "sab laug" also means "a hand used for eating." |
| Hungarian | "Bal" can also refer to the Hungarian word for "ball", derived from the Latin "ballare" (to dance). |
| Icelandic | "Vinstri" (left) comes from the Old Norse "vinstra," meaning "the direction toward which something is twisted." Similarly "hægri" (right) derives from "hægri," meaning "the proper or correct". |
| Igbo | In addition, "Èkpè" also literally means "the thing that is left" or "the last thing" in Igbo. |
| Indonesian | Kiri may also refer to a type of wood often used for musical instruments in Indonesia. |
| Irish | The Irish word "ar chlé" is cognate with the Latin word "clavis" (key), suggesting a shared root meaning "to close" or "to lock." |
| Italian | "Sinistra" (left) also means "bad" or "unlucky" in Italian, due to historical superstition. |
| Japanese | The character 左 (sa) is also used as a verb meaning "to leave" or "to depart". However, it is more commonly used to mean "to be left-handed" or "to be on the left side of the body." |
| Javanese | It was a borrowing from Proto-Austronesian *kiwa(ŋ), perhaps via Old Malaccan Malay as it differs considerably from the Proto-Malayic equivalent *kʰawaŋ which is preserved by Malay kiri. It is not to be confused with Indonesian kiri, which may have been a reborrowing from Javanese. |
| Kannada | ಎಡ is also a name of a Kannada writer. |
| Kazakh | "Сол" also means "side" or "direction" in Kazakh and is of Turkic origin. |
| Khmer | In Khmer, "ឆ្វេង" also means "east" and "to the left side of someone who is facing the south." |
| Korean | "왼쪽" originally meant "west," and in some dialects, also means "north." |
| Kurdish | The word "çep" in Kurdish also means "bad" or "evil." |
| Kyrgyz | The Kyrgyz word "сол" also means "northern" as the left side of a yurt is considered to face north. |
| Lao | ຊ້າຍ (left) is also used to refer to the west or the direction of the setting sun. |
| Latin | In ecclesiastical Latin, 'sinistram' retains its Roman meaning of 'left' in the liturgical expression 'ad sinistram' (on the left), but in popular usage, it takes on pejorative connotations of 'unlucky' or 'unfavorable'. |
| Latvian | The Latvian word “pa kreisi” has a literal equivalent of “along the circle”, which refers to movement counterclockwise. |
| Lithuanian | The word "paliko" in Lithuanian also means "stayed" or "remained". |
| Luxembourgish | The Luxembourgish word "lénks" may be derived from the French "gauche," meaning "left," or the Old High German "lenken," meaning "to lead" or "to turn." |
| Macedonian | "Лево" in Macedonian also means "lion" and "easy" and comes from the Proto-Slavic word "lěvъ", meaning "lion". |
| Malagasy | "Anka" also means "to write" and "to be different". |
| Malay | The Malay word "dibiarkan" also means "allowed" and derives from the Old Javanese term "biar" which means "to let". |
| Malayalam | The Malayalam word "ഇടത്തെ" can also be used to refer to something that is inferior or defective. |
| Maltese | Xellug, besides meaning "left", is etymologically linked to the word "sheel", meaning "to withdraw". |
| Maori | In Maori, "maui" can also refer to a type of shark, or the name of a mythical demigod who fished up the North Island of New Zealand. |
| Marathi | "डावीकडे" (left) derives from the Sanskrit word "davi," meaning "right side of the body," and thus originally meant "right hand side." |
| Mongolian | The word "зүүн" ("left") is also used in Mongolian to describe the east or northeast direction, as opposed to "баруун" ("right"), which refers to the west and southwest. |
| Nepali | The Nepali word 'बाँया' is derived from the Sanskrit word 'वाम' meaning 'bad' or 'inferior' and is also related to the Latin word 'sinister', which means 'left-handed' or 'unlucky'. |
| Norwegian | In Norwegian, the word "venstre" can also refer to the left-wing political party, Venstre. |
| Nyanja (Chichewa) | The word "kumanzere" is a compound of the root "manzere" (south) and the prefix "ku-" (to), indicating the direction "to the south". |
| Pashto | The Pashto word "کی" (kai) can also refer to the cardinal direction west, or the location of something behind someone. |
| Persian | The Persian word "ترک کرد" (left) originally meant "to abandon" or "to give up," and is related to the word "ترک" (abandonment). |
| Polish | The Polish word "lewo" comes from the Proto-Indo-European root "*leywo-" meaning "curve". |
| Portuguese (Portugal, Brazil) | The word "esquerda" comes from the Latin word "sinistra," which means "left" and also "unfavorable" or "evil." |
| Punjabi | The word "ਖੱਬੇ" in Punjabi can also refer to the direction of the sun's setting. |
| Romanian | The Romanian word "stânga" not only means "left" but also "wrong side" or "unfair". |
| Russian | The Russian verb "остаться" ("to remain") can also have the meaning of "to be left behind" or "to survive". |
| Samoan | Taumatau also means 'to go to the left' and 'left as in the direction' in Samoan. |
| Scots Gaelic | The word "clì" can also mean "awkward" or "unlucky" in Scots Gaelic. |
| Serbian | The word "лево" also comes from the Proto-Slavic word "lěvъ", meaning "lion," as lions were historically associated with the left side due to their heart being located on that side. |
| Sesotho | The word "ka ho le letšehali" (left) can also mean "the opposite direction of right" or "the western direction". |
| Shona | The word 'ruboshwe' can also refer to the west or the direction of the setting sun. |
| Sindhi | According to Trumpp Dictionary 1872 - کاٻو is also the name of a demon |
| Sinhala (Sinhalese) | වමට is the Sinhalese equivalent of the Sanskrit word वाम (vāma), which means 'not right' or 'perverse'. |
| Slovak | Vľavo is a cognate word of several Slavic languages meaning "left," it also appears in "vľavo" which means "on the left." |
| Slovenian | In Slovenian, “levo” means “left” in space or “left-leaning” in politics, whereas in Latin, it means “to lift up”. |
| Somali | The word "bidix" in Somali means "left", but can also refer to the north or the west. |
| Spanish | "Izquierda" comes from the Arabic word "al-yasar" (left), while "derecha" (right) comes from the Latin word "directus" (straight). |
| Sundanese | In Sundanese, the word "kénca" is derived from the Sanskrit word "kiñca", meaning "small, weak, or powerless". |
| Swahili | In Swahili, "kushoto" also means on the west side of something. |
| Swedish | In Swedish, "vänster" not only means "left", but also "clumsy" or "awkward." |
| Tagalog (Filipino) | "Alis" means "go" or "remove" in many Southeast Asian languages, including Tagalog and Indonesian. |
| Tajik | The word "чап" in Tajik can also refer to the western or northern direction. |
| Tamil | The word 'இடது' ('left') in Tamil has multiple meanings, including 'direction to the left', 'opposite of right', and 'something that is not straight or regular'. |
| Telugu | In classical Telugu literature, "ఎడమ" also means "opposite direction" or "opposite side". |
| Thai | "ซ้าย" also refers to a person's underprivileged side (e.g. the weaker of one's two arms). |
| Turkish | The word "ayrıldı" can also mean "separated" or "parted ways" in Turkish. |
| Ukrainian | The word "ліворуч" in Ukrainian derives from an Old Slavic stem "levъ", from the Proto-Indo-European "ley-" (to lie down). |
| Urdu | Urdu word "بائیں" (left) likely derives from the Sanskrit word "वाम" (vāma), with similar meanings. |
| Uzbek | In Uzbek, the word "chap" can also refer to the side of a mountain or river. |
| Vietnamese | The word 'trái' can also refer to a situation in which someone opposes or contradicts another and is often used to describe a relationship that is not reciprocal. |
| Welsh | Curiously, both "chwith/chwithau" and "de" were used to denote left in medieval Welsh. |
| Xhosa | The Xhosa word "khohlo" may also refer to being "weak" or "foolish." |
| Yiddish | The Yiddish word "לינקס" also means "lynx" in reference to the animal. |
| Yoruba | 'Òsí' also means the 'foot' and it is from this usage that the word derived its figurative usage. |
| Zulu | The word "kwesokunxele" in Zulu also means "the side of the heart" and "the side of the body where the heart is". |
| English | The word 'left' originates from the Old English word 'lyft', meaning 'weak' or 'useless', as the left hand was traditionally considered to be less dominant in most cultures. |