1846: gauche and droit Jan 4, 2020

Left has long been associated with negative things. The word sinister comes from the Latin for 'left' (sinister) but the Romance language French has a totally different word for 'left'; they say 'gauche'. However, even that means 'awkward', so while the word is a different one, the meaning, ultimately, is not. Likewise, the French word 'droit' for 'right' is not from the Latin one 'dextrus', but is a doublet of the English 'direct'.

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