Elaine: most interesting. Thanks. Irish (and Scots***) orthography took ages to stabilize. (The Cornish folk are still squabbling!) Ciotog seems the preferred spelling but both citeog and kithogue are found. It means ‘left-hand’ or ‘left-hander’ in normal usage, but, as you say, can be used figuratively or derisively (awkward, unlucky, or worse, cursed by the Devil!) I was amused to discover that at least one group of “oppressed” left-handers exchange their grudges at http://kithogue.com/ from which I quote
New research shows that fierce pagan Celtic warrior was left handed. However, there is absolutely no proof to show that he used his kithogue for writing - it was an oral culture afterall - but rather for chopping off heads and the like.
Ciotog happens to be feminine gender, 2nd declension, but no misogyny implied. The etym. Is strange because you might expect the root laimhe (hand) to be present (as in mala-laimhe: hand-bag or lamhscribheoireacht: handwriting) whereas in ciotog, we have cio (from cle=left) followed by tog, a root meaning take/hold/build/pick up. That is, we’ve moved from a physical ‘hand’ to actions usually performed by hand. You can see how it may affect how native Irish speakers might ‘visualize’ the word. Any Irish natives out there?
The possible link between ‘left-hand’ and awkward, unlucky, worse (gay or Roman Catholic) starts with the disadvantage faced by the “odd” (minority) left-handed children, often forced to use the right (correct!) hand. In a real sense, the right hand is better when writing from left to right. (With other scripts such as Arabic, the roles are reversed.) If you watched the left-handed President Obama signing his first batch of executive orders, you might have noticed the non-standard pen-grip and angle. His strategy, in fact, is consisered optimal, that is the least awkward given the physics of writing left-to-right with the left-hand. Children forced to switch writing-hands are known to suffer, and happily, teachers are no longer enforcing this indignity.
Meanwhile, the slur on kithogues typified by Nabokov’s “sexually left-handed” shows no sign of disappearing.
** Elaine will know of the Menzies pronounced Mingus spelling quirk, but for others there’s a helpful lmerick
A lively young damsel named Menzies
Inquired: "Do you know what this thenzies?"
Her aunt, with a gasp,
Replied: "It's a wasp,
And you're holding the end where the stenzies."
skb
On 18/02/2009 03:22, "Nabokv-L" <nabokv-l@UTK.EDU> wrote:
Subject:
Re: [NABOKV-L] THOUGHTS re: Botkin, V.
From:
Emgramma@aol.com
Date:
Tue, 17 Feb 2009 11:35:20 EST
To:
NABOKV-L@listserv.ucsb.edu
I noticed that you mentioned Tim Finnegan, the hod carrier who fell from the ladder while drunk.
James Joyce also refers to left-handed in the "Circe" chapter of Ulysses with "Kithogue", Anglicized Irish for a left-handed and thus considered an unlucky person.
"Cithogue" is repeated on page 91 of Joyce's Finnegans Wake where it refers to the Roman Catholic priest as he lifts his hand during the Mass.
Elaine Mingus