Derechos y derechas
Here's something I've wondered about for a long time. In Spanish, English, French and Italian, the word for "right" (as in right/left) is the same word (or very nearly) for the word "right" as in "civil right" or the "right" to do or be something. In English, it's right/right; in Spanish derecho/derecha; in French, droit/droit. Does anyone know why this should be? It doesn't seem like right as in right/left has anything to do with right as in human rights or civil rights or the right to vote for the party of one's choice and yet in each of these languages the word is the same for both. Any ideas?
4 Answers
I don't know why, but the word "right" is also linked with the idea of being correct in English, while in Latin, Spanish and French (Romance languages) it is connected to the idea of being skillful or, to use the Anglicized Latin word, dexterous, while "left" is linked to the idea of being clumsy, as in the French word "gauche". This probably came from the idea that right handed people were more skillful than left handed people.
Here's more information than you want, though the history of the word in English is very interesting.
From the Online Etymology Dictionary Site, http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=right
right (adj.1) "morally correct," O.E. riht "just, good, fair, proper, fitting, straight," from P.Gmc. *rekhtaz (cf. O.H.G. reht, Ger. recht, O.N. rettr, Goth. raihts), from PIE base *reg- "move in a straight line," also "to rule, to lead straight, to put right" (see regal; cf. Gk. orektos "stretched out, upright;" L. rectus "straight, right;" O.Pers. rasta- "straight, right," aršta- "rectitude;" O.Ir. recht "law;" Welsh rhaith, Breton reiz "just, righteous, wise"). Cf. slang straight "honest, morally upright," and L. rectus "right," lit. "straight," Lith. teisus "right, true," lit. "straight." Gk. dikaios "just" (in the moral and legal sense) is from dike "custom." The noun sense of "just claim" was in O.E. and P.Gmc. As an emphatic, meaning "you are right," it is recorded from 1588; use as a question meaning "am I not right?" is from 1961. The phrase to rights "at once, straightway" is 1663, from sense "in a proper manner" (M.E.). The sense in right whale is "justly entitled to the name." Phrase right off the bat is 1914, earlier hot from the bat (1888), probably a baseball metaphor; right stuff "best human ingredients" is from 1848, popularized by Tom Wolfe's 1979 book about the first astronauts. Right on! as an exclamation of approval first recorded 1925 in black slang, popularized mid-1960s by Black Panther movement. Right of way is attested from 1768.
right (adj.2) "opposite of left," early 12c., riht, from O.E. riht, which did not have this sense but meant "good, proper, fitting, straight" (see right (adj.1) ). The notion is of the right hand as the "correct" hand. The O.E. word for this was swiþra, lit. "stronger." "The history of words for 'right' and 'left' shows that they were used primarily with reference to the hands" [Buck]. Cf. similar sense evolution in Du. recht, Ger. recht "right (not left)," from O.H.G. reht, which meant only "straight, just." The usual PIE root (*dek-) is represented by L. dexter (see dexterity). Other derivations on a similar pattern to English right are Fr. droit, from L. directus "straight;" Lith. labas, lit. "good;" and Slavic words (Boh. pravy, Pol. prawy, Rus. pravyj) from O.C.S. pravu, lit. "straight." The political sense of "conservative" is first recorded 1794 (adj.), 1825 (n.), a translation of Fr. Droit "the Right, Conservative Party" in the French National Assembly (1789; see left).
right (v.) O.E. rihtan "to straighten, rule, set up," from riht (adj.); see right (adj.1). Cf. O.N. retta "to straighten," Ger. richten, Goth. garaihtjan.
If someone gives a correct answer, you don't say "Eres derecho", you say "Eres correcto". No?
It has to do with the majority of human kind being right handed. so, all that is right is "right" all that is left is bad. The majority rules. People are afraid of things that are different.
