The Hidden Bias in Language That Turned Left-Handedness Into a Bad Thing

Historically speaking, humanity has not been kind to those who are considered different, especially when those differences can be easily seen. While certainly not as discriminated against as other populations, left-handed people have been shunned and forced to change their nature in many different cultures.

While handedness has now become one of the least-vilified human features, historical prejudice against the left side and the left hand has remained in many languages, both through individual words and phrases. Since language has been proven to have an impact on how we perceive the world, it is significant that this bias is so deeply ingrained in our languages.

Historical Roots of Hand-Bias

There are many explanations for why handedness should matter, but most are derived from the fact that right-hand dominance is so prominent. Research shows that about 10% of the human population is left-handed, although traditional biases have made it difficult to be certain. If we accept that number (or even take the extreme end, which suggests up to 18%), it is clear that right-handed people are in the strong majority. As such, they have built the world in their favor.

Derived from that, most people eat, write, and greet others with their right hands. In contrast, the left hand is often used for less desirable tasks. Lefties are also considered more clumsy, simply because many elements of our world (such as door handles, notebooks, etc.) are not built with them in mind.

The final element that contributes to left-hand bias (particularly in Christian regions) is a religious tendency to match bad people and things with the left side and righteous ones with the right. Eve was depicted as being on Adam’s left side, and she receives most of the blame for original sin. Lucifer was seated on God’s left side before falling, whereas the right side was reserved for other archangels or Jesus, depending on the depiction.

Similarly, the Gospel of Matthew mentions the goats, sorted to the left, going to Hell, while the sheep, sorted to the right, would be taken to heaven.

While there have been cultures that used the opposite mentality, a combination of biological and cultural trends has certainly made right-handedness seem better. Given how long that mentality was in play, it makes sense that it would influence our language.

How English Moralizes Directions

In English, we primarily see hand bias in the multiple meanings of the words “right” and “left.” In addition to the simple direction, “right” can mean good, correct, and preferable as an adjective, while referencing a power, privilege, or situation of ownership as a noun. It is also frequently used in cases of law and justice, such as “inalienable rights” and seeking to “right the wrongs” that have been done.

Interestingly, while “left” also has multiple meanings, they are rarely in direct opposition to “right." Instead, we might talk about something that has been “left” behind (or abandoned), or the last thing “left,” in the sense of remaining.

Linguistically speaking, the word "right" has many positive connotations, whereas the word "left" seems to be primarily defined by a lack of substance. Indeed, if we trace the words’ histories, the word right, as a direction, seems to have come from the Old English riht, which more directly meant good and proper. Conversely, the word left seems to be derived from archaic Dutch and German words meaning weak.

Left and Right, by Language

Ancient languages don’t appear to have had as much of a bias as modern ones, though the words they used have been twisted into negatives and positives in the time since. The most extreme version of this can be seen in Latin, where right is dexter (think dexterity) and left is sinister. Note that, while the origins of "sinister" are contested, the word almost certainly didn’t correlate with evil when it first began.

As can be seen by comparing some of the ancient languages we know best, left and right most frequently either referred to other directions or were based on the general idea that most people were more skilled with their right hand and less skilled with their left.

Both Greek and Latin seemed to change their opinions on the favorability of the left at times, which makes for some complications when searching for one clear meaning. However, as we look closer to modern times, the negative perception of the left became much more clearly ingrained in language.

The following chart includes the top 10 languages spoken in the world (excluding English), along with their words for left and right and the meanings and associations they hold.

Despite these languages coming from drastically different cultures and alphabets, there are some clear patterns in how their directional language is characterized. While the right side is associated with being straight, correct, and lawful, the left is seen as physically incapable or incorrect. In Arabic and Hindi, the connections with ease suggest that a task must be easy to be accomplished by the left hand.

Modern Phrases and Customs That Follow the Trend

Beyond the words themselves, there are plenty of phrases that continue to demean left-handedness. For example, a clumsy person is described as having “two left feet,” and "fighting left-handed" is doing so at a disadvantage. That perspective then comes back around with nicknames for lefties such as mollydooker, goofy hander, cack-handed, and wrongpaw. Nearly all of these in some way reference clumsiness or weakness.

Local idioms and customs highlight the moral implications. For example, the phrase “getting up with the left foot” is connected with having a bad day, and “left luck” is another way to say bad luck. When trying to ward off bad luck, we may toss salt over our left shoulder, specifically because it’s believed that the devil is on our left and the salt will blind him. Similarly, cartoons that show an angel on one shoulder and the devil on the other typically depict the devil on the person’s left.

Ironically, the bias can be weaponized in contradictory ways, so long as the person implicated is being viewed negatively. While the term “left-footer” is slang against Catholics in Northern Ireland (with contested origins), “left-legger” is slang against Protestants (supposedly because of how they kneel in church).

The phrases also come into play in our relationships with others. While an honored ally might be called a "right-hand man," it can be an insult to deliberately place someone on the left of a person of power. Likewise, some cultures describe counterfeit products as “left-handed,” and a person might be labeled as such if they are inherently untrustworthy.

Historically, there were also instances of “left-hand marriages.” These were officially called morganatic marriages, where a royal or noble would marry someone of drastically lower status. They were considered legally married, and any children they produced were legitimate, but the spouse and children were generally ineligible to inherit property or titles. While the legal custom is far less relevant today, the idea of a socially-imbalanced marriage can still be called "left-handed."

Perhaps the only modern slang about the left and right that isn’t inherently based on handedness bias is the political concept of the right (conservative) and the left (liberal). That terminology comes from the seating arrangements of the 1789 French National Assembly, where revolutionaries sat on the left side, and pro-monarchy members sat on the right. However, as the revolutionaries tended to be commoners and the royalists tended to be aristocrats, it is entirely possible that it was intended as a slight at the time. 

Whether you are calling a horror story sinister, praising your right-hand man, or even discussing ambidextrousness, you are unwittingly relying on millennia-old beliefs about the value of left- and right-hand dominance. Only by identifying and acknowledging this linguistic prejudice can we truly move past it.