On Fri, Jun 5, 2020 at 11:39 AM Marc Nieper-Wißkirchen <xxxxxx@nieper-wisskirchen.de> wrote:

For the first application, we use "Right" in the sense of right = true
= correct = ok. In this case, Ok/Err would also be ok (another pun not
intended).

Indeed, the ambiguity between the meanings 'opposite of left' and 'straight, correct' goes back to Proto-Indo-European six thousand years ago.  I was going to say that Lassi, who speaks a Uralic language, is excused from noticing this pun, but it seems that Finnish _suora_ has both meanings too, probably because its root is borrowed from Common Germanic _sta-_ 'stand'.  In Hungarian (very distantly related to Finnish) they are utterly different.

At least English uses "Go straight!" and "Go right!" as unambiguous driving directions.  Not so in the Romance languages: French "Tout droite!" vs. "À droit!" and Spanish "Derecho!" vs. "(A la) derecha!", differing only in gender.



John Cowan          http://vrici.lojban.org/~cowan        xxxxxx@ccil.org
The work of Henry James has always seemed divisible by a simple dynastic
arrangement into three reigns: James I, James II, and the Old Pretender.
                --Philip Guedalla