Cack handed

Cack handed means left handed but has also come to mean clumsy or awkward, simply because left handed people appear so to right handed people. Cack on its own, however, is a fine old English word for excrement dating from the 15th century, originally from the Latin cacare to defecate, resulting in many similar Indo-European language variations where the Latin c is substituted by k (as in the Dutch kakken to defecate). Next, we are told that the left hand was usually the hand used for cleaning oneself after defecating. Therefore, it became known as the cack hand. All this seems to make admirable sense until one learns that the first citation for cack handed only dates from the mid-19th century. Something smells here. Although there is no denying that the etymology of cack derives from excrement, dating from the 15th century, because the first known citation for 'cack handed' is only from the mid-19th century, a more likely origin for it is Northern English dialect, where 'ceck' or 'keck' simply means awkward or clumsy.