Handiwork

I am a very clumsy person. And accident-prone. One day, when I was a child, I was holding a mug of tea, and the cup fell off its handle, leaving me holding the china handle and my long-suffering parents cleaning up the mess of tea and shards of pottery around me.

I was reminded of this when I looked into the history of the word clumsy. It apparently comes from a Middle English word meaning 'numb with cold'. I like the idea that clumsiness can be attributed to having cold hands! If only I didn't live in centrally-heated comfort…

As I grew up and began to understand the roots of words, it struck me as particularly unfair that most of the terms for clumsiness seemed to relate to left-handedness: gauche is actually the French word for 'left', and maladroit describes the awkwardness that comes from not being right-handed!

But as a right-hander, it appears I have no excuse. On the plus side, dexterity derives from the Latin word for the right hand. And, now I come to think of it, I've always been rather good at origami…