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Original poster

Do you say left handed or back handed

62 replies

LeftOrBack · 25/07/2024 11:58

for compliments that are really insults?

YABU - back handed compliment
YANBU - left handed

Left handed sounds right to me.

OP posts:
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VickyEadieofThigh · 25/07/2024 17:01

CelesteCunningham · 25/07/2024 12:03

Back handed.

Using left handed in that sense sounds like an insult to left handed people.

Indeed. In my 66 years as a left-hander, this thread is the first time I've heard it used in this way.

And I find it insulting.

Talipesmum · 25/07/2024 16:59

This language corpus search shows all instances of “backhanded compliment” and “lefthanded compliment” across a huge corpus of books in English (both American and British) over many decades. Looks like lefthanded compliment as a phrase is not seen much at all compared to backhanded.

https://books.google.com/ngrams/info

Do you say left handed or back handed
OP posts:
GertrudePerkinsPaperyThing · 25/07/2024 15:32

It’s back handed

It’s not a question of “do you say”

Left handed has never been used to mean this

NewName24 · 25/07/2024 15:30

I'm with the 98%

Back handed compliment is a false compliment that has you wondering if it might actually be an insult
Cack handed is to do with being clumsy
Left handed means your left hand is dominant.

Oh and don't agree it is a 'modern' thing. My parents born in the 1920s would use the words as above.

SemperIdem · 25/07/2024 15:29

My maternal grandfather had his left hand tied to a chair to stop him writing with it in school, in the 1940/50’s, in the UK. I can well imagine that the saying was originally “left handed compliment”.

Left handedness was dimly viewed in West until relatively recently. It still is in other parts of the world, very openly so.

rainbowsparkle28 · 25/07/2024 15:25

Back handed. Left handed I would take to literally mean writes etc. with the left hand.

mm81736 · 25/07/2024 15:24

Backhanded comes from the idea that you use your right hand for eating and your left hand fir dirty jobs, like arse wiping

Never heard of a left-handed compliment, always backhanded- I wonder if it is a regional thing.

Wallcreeper · 25/07/2024 15:08

Talipesmum · 25/07/2024 12:11

I really don’t think it was. Try asking how many people here have ever heard of the phrase “left handed compliment”.

Show quote history

This. I read very, very widely in English literature from the 18thc onward, and have no memory of ever coming across it, though I would have intuited the same meaning as 'backhanded compliment' if I had.

These days, I think people are very aware of the traditional othering of left-handed people by language like dextrous/sinister etc, so it's unlikely to be used.

Whenthesilenceisntquiet · 25/07/2024 15:01

CelesteCunningham · 25/07/2024 12:03

Back handed.

Using left handed in that sense sounds like an insult to left handed people.

It is. Saying something is a bit left handed to mean something wrong is a very old fashioned insult.

toomanytonotice · 25/07/2024 14:46

BackOfAsda · 25/07/2024 12:03

Back handed

Left handed means cack handed (both are outdated)

For me “cack handed” is used to mean clumsy or to mess things up.

back handed compliment- insult
left handed- write with left

OneTC · 25/07/2024 14:39

CelesteCunningham · 25/07/2024 12:03

Back handed.

Using left handed in that sense sounds like an insult to left handed people.

As would be the norm

Starchipenterprise · 25/07/2024 14:31

OP - it has always been 'back handed' regardless if you have used a regional version!!!!

PinkArt · 25/07/2024 14:19

DerekFaker · 25/07/2024 12:24

It is, but it derives from being derogatory about left handed people.

Show quote history

Yup, another phrase that could do with dying out. My nan would refer to me being cack handed rather than left handed occasionally - with absolutely no malice as she was an utterly wondrful person - and I didn't love it. No-one needs any suggestion that they are 'wrong handed'.

We are, of course, far from the top of the persecuted list but have historically been seen as unlucky, unclean, forced to use our right hands, don't have left handed kit provided in schools etc and those language hangovers from less aware and enlightened times aren't helpful.

Wordsmithery · 25/07/2024 13:20

LeftOrBack · 25/07/2024 12:03

It literally is a saying! I’ve heard people use back handed too though.

Interesting! I've never heard it used in this context.

InterIgnis · 25/07/2024 12:43

“Since at least the late 1800’s, the term ‘backhanded’ has been used figuratively to mean “oblique in meaning; indirect, devious, equivocal, ambiguous, or sarcastic.

The variant left-handed compliment comes from the use, dating from around 1600 of the word left-handed to mean “questionable” or “doubtful.” This use, in turn, derived from the left long being associated with wrongness or evil. The word sinister was the Latin word left or “on the left side” which became through Old French, our modern word sinister.”

https://www.idioms.online/backhanded-compliment/

I’ve personally heard both. Backhanded more commonly.

guineverehadgreeneyes · 25/07/2024 12:41

LeftOrBack · 25/07/2024 12:07

Maybe back handed compliment is the more polite and up to date version but traditionally I think it was always a ‘left handed compliment’.

I am in my early 70s and have never heard the phrase "left handed compliment" being used. How far back in time do you mean by "traditionally"?

willWillSmithsmith · 25/07/2024 12:36

I’ve heard of left field as an (unrelated) saying but never left handed. You learn something new everyday.

bookworm14 · 25/07/2024 12:35

I’ve never heard of the phrase ‘left-handed compliment’. Please don’t use ‘left handed’ as an insult.

FOJN · 25/07/2024 12:32

I've never heard of a left handed compliment before. A quick Google shows it's a thing but I'm in my 50's and have only ever heard people use the phrase "back handed compliment".

You learn something new everyday.

HotCrossBunplease · 25/07/2024 12:26

LeftOrBack · 25/07/2024 12:18

Thanks, don’t know how reliable that source is but fascinating to see back handed compliments surging after the 1980s

Show quote history

The source of the data in the graph isn’t attributed at all!

TheYearOfSmallThings · 25/07/2024 12:25

A compliment can be back handed.

A person can be left handed.

IsadoraQuagmire · 25/07/2024 12:24

I've never heard "left handed" in that context, only " back handed" Cack handed, to me, means awkward or clumsy.
Double edged doesn't mean any of these things.

FictionalCharacter · 25/07/2024 12:24

Boomer55 · 25/07/2024 12:15

Cack handed is what it used to be called around here.

That’s something completely different. Cack handed means inept or clumsy, including verbally. Backhanded compliment means an insult disguised as a compliment.

DerekFaker · 25/07/2024 12:24

WhatNoRaisins · 25/07/2024 12:22

I thought cack handedness was more to do with being physically clumsy.

It is, but it derives from being derogatory about left handed people.