Etymology

dextrorotatory

D2E1X8T1R1O1R1O1T1A1T1O1R1Y4

Today it means: That rotates the plane of polarized light to the right, or clockwise. Notation: (+) or formerly lowercase d-. Full definition →

English rotatory ← Latin dexter ← Proto-Italic *deksteros
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European*déḱs
  2. Proto-Indo-European*deḱs-terós
  3. Proto-Italic*deksteros
  4. Latindexter
  5. Englishdextro-
  6. Englishrotatory
  7. English todaydextrorotatory

From dextro- + rotatory.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.