To Answer a Query

A cack-handed young lass enquired as to the origin of 'Cack-Handed.  Naturally I had absolutely no idea!  So when I came home from the museum this afternoon having a sleep, stuffing my fat face, and watching Scotland freezing in Norway I decided to investigate.
I didn't get far.
Not one person could give a clear lead as to the origin.  Many could define the word however:

The Oxford dictionaries say:
Definition of cack-handed in English
British informal
1: inept; clumsy: a great song ruined by cack-handed production
2: derogatory left-handed.

Urban Dict

1. cack handed

It means an awkward or inept way of doing something; originally meaning left handed, 

stemming from cultures that use their right hand to eat 

and their left hand to wipe their behind.

Dictionary Central

cack-handed

Definition: Slang

adjective:  clumsy, inept. 
The term originally meant left-handed, probably deriving from the idea of handling cack (excrement). Although the connection seems obvious, this expression is probably too old to be influenced by reports of the Muslim practice of eating with the right hand, wiping away excrement with the left. This pejorative adjective seems to be country dialect in origin; it is now fairly widespread and not particularly offensive.

Origin and History of “cack-handed”

Cack comes from a 15th-century dialect verb meaning ‘defecate’, which probably came from middle Dutch cacken. It goes back via Latin cacāre to an ultimate Indo-European base *kak-, from which a lot of other Indo-European languages get words connected with ‘excrement’. The connection with cack-handed is usually explained as being that clumsy people make a mess; on this view ‘left-handed’, which cack-handed also means, is a secondary sense derived from ‘clumsy’. It may be nearer the mark to place ‘left-handed’ first, however, bearing in mind the traditional role of the left hand in many cultures for wiping the anus.

Somewhere else:

Cachus was Old English for a privy, and both words come from Latin cacare, to defecate.

The general consensus, with absolutely no proof, is that it refers to the use of the right hand for eating and the left for er, the other end.  The derivation from the Latin into English and the use English folk made of such genteel terms indicates this may be correct.  

Interestingly the word 'right' is used in many European cultures for 'correct.'  

The Latin 'SINISTRA' meaning 'left,' gives us 'Sinister.'  
People therefore considered anything of the left evil.
Make of that what you will!

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Addendum:
A left hander writes-
You seem to have omitted lots of stuff about all cack-handers being geniuses... 

'Cack,' a diminutive of crack, meaning elite, special, esp. referring to military units...

hmmm...

.

Life is Funny

Life is indeed funny.  Yesterday I wrote nothing and I got several happy replies.  In days past I have written deeply thoughtful, penetrating, insightful, and objective posts which have been largely ignored!  The conclusion is either my readership (25 read my last post) has the intellectual depth of the 'Daily Mail' reader, or  er, something else!  Either way it is all so confusing.  

Another confusing yet funny incident occurred far away today.  Our beloved leader 'Dave,' has made use of the Commonwealth leaders get together to have a go at the Sri Lankan boss for hurting those Tamil folks.   That is the Tamils Tiger folks who conducted a viscous war for forty years leading to many terrorist deaths.  The army crushed them once and for all a couple of years ago and now people bleat about 'Human Rights.'  I am somewhat cynical here, certainly the army took no prisoners and is no doubt guilty of abuse however after so many years of war something had to be done.  Now there is a peace, even if it is far from perfect.  Sad to say that if you 'live by the sword, you die by the sword.'  For me this has an element similar to those who say the bombing of Germany should never have happened, or dropping the bomb on Hiroshima was wrong.  Had we not bombed Germany we may have lost, had we not dropped the bomb more may have fallen later, on us!  Guess who would be the first to complain then?  Similarly those not hurt by the Tigers may well criticise Sri Lanca, but I would hesitate.  Had I been the boss down there confronted with 'Dave' and his crocodile tears I would immediately take a trip to Ireland and congratulate the IRA on their war.  'Dave' may not like that.  There is no doubt that David Cameron is not right for his job.  Soon he will be gone but the mess will not be cleared up soon, and probably not by what takes over.  Life is funny, and it might get funnier soon.  I've an idea, lets get that chap from Toronto to take over.......

 

I read somewhere that two thousand left handed people are killed each year by using right handed equipment.  I did laugh!  Naturally we should not laugh at such things, left handed folks are all around and normally everything is aimed at right handed peoples.  Quite right too I say, although one or two cack handed types of my acquaintance tend to differ.  The difference between a normal house and theirs is exposed when you use a utensil of some type.  Potato peelers that are back to front, although I never peel potatoes myself, scissors that don't fit the hand, even the pens are odd to hold, and as for the cups!  The museum Victorian School setup occasionally has trouble with a left handed kid.  In Victorian days you were forced, like it or not, to write right handed, the normal way, and such left handed children as arrive are forced to do this in the Vic school.  They do suffer, but even into the sixties I think it was normal to force kids to write right handed?  Again I laugh when considering how dangerous it can be to be left handed, hospitals you see often have the results of accidents that make you laugh, sometimes serious ones.  For example each year around a dozen people visit hospital because they burn themselves ironing, that is, ironing clothes they are wearing!  So a left handed accident could well be amusing, but I do wonder how on earth they manage to kill themselves?  Any lefthanders out there?  Are you ambidextrous?

Any complaints re spelling today....?