dexterous
adjective

- skillful in the use of the hands

- having mental skill or adroitness

American Heritage Dictionary

- Fine motor skill (or dexterity) is the coordination of small muscles, in movements — usually involving the synchronisation of hands and fingers — with the eyes. The complex levels of manual dexterity that humans exhibit can be attributed to and demonstrated in tasks controlled by the nervous system. Fine motor skills aid in the growth of intelligence and develop continuously throughout the stages of human development.

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ORIGIN

Dexterous was formed in English in the 16th century from the Latin dexter + -ous. It originally referred to "convenient, suitable" and eventually changed to the sense of skilful, especially with the hands. Dexter in turn derived from the noun dexterity and adjective dexter, both of which originally stem from the Latin dexteritas by way of the French dexterité.

Dexter coincidentally also referred to the "right hand" (from a Proto-Indo-European source deks, meaning on the right hand), which furthermore was used in some languages such as Sanskrit to refer to southern, under the idea that when one faces east your right-hand side is then in a southerly direction. This concept appears in other languages such as the Old Irish "dess" which meant "on the right hand" and "southern."

A related word is ambidextrous, meaning able to use both hands equally well (from the Latin ambi = both and dexter = right/favourable). Thus, ambidextrous literally means "right/favourable on both sides."

The term ambidexter in English was originally used in a legal sense of jurors who accepted bribes from both parties for their verdict. For this reason, ambidextrous is also used in the sense of "deceitful, dishonest" and is synonymous with the expression "double-dealing."

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SYNONYMS

able, deft, adept, adroit, agile, nimble, neat, nimble-fingered, handy, able, capable, talented, skilful, skilled, proficient, accomplished, expert, experienced, practised, polished, efficient, effortless, slick, professional, masterful, masterly, fine motor skill

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Practice OWAD a conversation today, say something like:

"You need to be quite DEXTEROUS to use some of today's smartphones."