Re: Left-handed

Posted by Victoria S Dennis on August 15, 2005

In Reply to: Re: Left-handed posted by ESC on August 15, 2005

: : Besides the phrase 'left-handed compliment', could you list other phrases as many as possible containing the words 'left-handed'? Thanks!

: From the archives: left-handed oath.
: http://www.phrases.org.uk/bulletin_board/31/messages/987.html

: I've never heard that one.

There's "left-handed marriage", which means a morganatic marriage. A morganatic marriage (a concept which has never existed in Anglo-Saxon law but did exist in parts of Europe)is marraige between people of very unequal rank, usually a royal and a commoner, in which the children did not inherit the rank of their posher parent. A second-class sort of marriage. Reputedly at the marriage ceremony the bride and groom joined left hand to left hand, unlike a normal wedding in which they join right to right.