1520s, from Middle French dexterité (16c.), from Latin dexteritatem (nominative dexteritas) "readiness, skillfulness, prosperity," from dexter "skillful," also "right (hand)" (source of Old French destre, Spanish diestro, etc.), from PIE root *deks- "on the right hand," hence "south" to one facing east (cognates: Sanskrit daksinah "on the right hand, southern, skillful;" Avestan dashina- "on the right hand;" Greek dexios "on the right hand," also "fortunate, clever;" Old Irish dess "on the right hand, southern;" Welsh deheu; Gaulish Dexsiva, name of a goddess of fortune; Gothic taihswa; Lithuanian desinas; Old Church Slavonic desnu, Russian desnoj). The Latin form is with the comparative suffix -ter, thus meaning etymologically "the better direction." Middle English dester meant "right hand," and in heraldry dexter means "on the right side."
雙語例句
1. His manual dexterity and fine spatial skills were wasted on routine tasks.
他靈巧的動手能力和杰出的空間識別能力都浪費在日常事務上了。
來自柯林斯例句
2. Wayne has great verbal dexterity.
韋恩的語言表達能力很強。
來自柯林斯例句
3. You need manual dexterity to be good at video games.
玩好電子游戲手要靈巧。
來自《權(quán)威詞典》
4. Few can equal [ compare with ] her in manual dexterity.