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southpaw

 - 4 dictionary results

south⋅paw

  [south-paw] Informal.
Use southpaw in a Sentence
–noun
1. a person who is left-handed.
2. Sports.
a. a player who throws with the left hand, esp. a pitcher.
b. Boxing. a boxer who leads with the right hand and stands with the right foot forward, using the left hand for the most powerful blows.
–adjective
3. left-handed.
Origin:
1880–85, Americanism; south + paw 1
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source Link To southpaw
south·paw   (south'pô')   
n.   Slang
A left-handed person, especially a left-handed baseball pitcher.

[From the practice in baseball of arranging the diamond with the batter facing east to avoid the afternoon sun. A left-handed pitcher facing west would therefore have his pitching arm toward the south of the diamond.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Slang Dictionary
southpaw

  1. n.
    a left-handed person. : My sister is a southpaw, but I'm not.
Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions by Richard A. Spears.Fourth Edition.
Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.
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Word Origin & History

southpaw 
"lefthander," 1885, originally baseball slang, of pitchers, often said to have been coined by Finley Peter Dunne ("Mr. Dooley"), Chicago sports journalist and humorist, in the days when baseball diamonds were regularly oriented with home plate to the west. But south paw "a person's left hand" is attested from 1848 in the slang of pugilism.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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