Latin perfects and Fluent Etruscan in 30 days!

[Jim Rader]

The baseball diamond theory of the origin of <southpaw> is almost
certainly folklore.  Note that the OED's first citation for the word,
in the sense "blow with the left hand," is from 1848.  Organized
baseball was in its infancy in the 1840's and conventions for laying
out diamonds were very unlikely to have existed so early that a
transferred sense of the word could have arisen by 1848.  Also, the
Survey of English Dialects recorded <south-pawed> meaning
"left-handed" in Cumberland--suggesting that the association of south
with the left hand did not originate in the U.S.

Jim Rader

> As far as I know -- and the OED supports me here -- the word `southpaw'
> derives from the American game of baseball.

[ moderator snip ]

> Larry Trask