sleight of hand

sleight of hand

English

Etymology

From Middle English slegthe of hande, sleght of hond, equivalent to sleight +‎ of +‎ hand.

Compare Old French léger de main (cf. the contemporary French léger de main and the contemporary English legerdemain).[1]

Pronunciation

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

Noun

sleight of hand (countable and uncountable, plural sleights of hand)

1. The required digital dexterity behind magic tricks and illusions.
2. A performance of such skill.
3. (by extension, idiomatic) Any form of skillful deception.

Synonyms

• legerdemain
• prestidigitation

Translations

skill

Catalan: prestidigitació f Dutch: vingervlugheid (nl) Finnish: sorminäppäryys French: escamotage (fr) m, tour de main (fr) m Galician: prestidixitación (gl) f German: Fingerfertigkeit f Greek: ταχυδακτυλουργία (el) f (tachydaktylourgía) Ancient: ὀξυχειρία f (oxukheiría) Italian: prestidigitazione f Norwegian: Bokmål: taskenspillerkunst m, knep (no) n, fingerferdighet m or f Persian: تردستی‎ (fa) (tardasti) Portuguese: prestidigitação f, passe-passe m, ilusionismo m Russian: ло́вкость рук f (lóvkostʹ ruk) Serbo-Croatian: opsena (sh) f Spanish: escamoteo (es) m, prestidigitación (es) f Swedish: fingerfärdighet (sv) c Tagalog: bilis ng kamay Welsh: deheurwydd m

performance

Armenian: աճպարարություն (hy) (ačpararutʿyun) Catalan: joc de mans m Chinese: Cantonese: 花招 (faa1 ziu1) Dutch: goocheltoer Finnish: silmänkääntötemppu (fi) French: tour de main (fr) m, tour de passe-passe (fr) m German: Taschenspielertrick (de) m Greek: ταχυδακτυλουργία (el) f (tachydaktylourgía) Hungarian: mutatvány (hu), bűvészmutatvány (hu) Latin: praestīgiae f pl Portuguese: prestidigitação f, passe-passe m Spanish: escamoteo (es) m, juego de manos (es) m Swedish: trick (sv) n, knep (sv) n

References

1. Arika Okrent (2019-07-05), “12 Old Words That Survived by Getting Fossilized in Idioms”, in Mental Floss‎, Pocket, retrieved 2021-10-08