# Why "hand" for direction? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 31, 2022, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hand-for-direction/965400 "2022-05-31T02:42:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2022, 10:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hand-for-direction/965400/41 "2022-05-31T10:50:42Z")
“Turn widdershins! I mean deosil dammit!” ---
**Author:** ![velomont](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/8491ac/32.png) [@velomont](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/velomont)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2022, 10:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hand-for-direction/965400/42 "2022-05-31T10:53:51Z")
I suppose that this is a wrong thing to do (comment on a mod) but, is his/her serial snark necessary too? The OP asked a factual question and we have one person offering nothing but sarcasm. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2022, 10:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hand-for-direction/965400/43 "2022-05-31T10:57:09Z")
The more you look, the more examples of this sort of thing you will find: - ‘12 midnight/noon’ when ‘midnight/noon’ would do - one and the same - each and every - shorter in length - advance warning - plan ahead - end result - mix together - past history - … English is _jam-packed_ with _unnecessary redundancy_ ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2022, 11:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hand-for-direction/965400/44 "2022-05-31T11:24:40Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > English is _jam-packed_ with _unnecessary redundancy_ Not just English. Any language\*— indeed, any effective means of communication. It’s because communication is imperfect. Sound travels through air, things are noisy, and ears aren’t perfect machines. (Linguist John McWhorter explains this well, as so others, I’m sure). \*e.g., French for “what’s that?” Is “what is that which it is?” ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2022, 11:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hand-for-direction/965400/45 "2022-05-31T11:35:02Z")
Yes, I struggle with right and left too, and it’s not because I’m mentally different or childish. I actually do a quick look at my hand and see my wedding ring to verify “left”. I don’t say right hand or left hand myself, but find it no more childish than just saying right or left. It’s just a different version of the same idea. ---
**Author:** ![Schnitte](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/schnitte/32/9033_2.png) [@Schnitte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Schnitte)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2022, 11:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hand-for-direction/965400/46 "2022-05-31T11:40:04Z")
Called, in some (though not all) of your instances, a hendiadys. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2022, 11:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hand-for-direction/965400/47 "2022-05-31T11:40:57Z")
> [@Peanuthead](#): > > You hear it all the time. “Make a right hand turn”. “Look on the left hand side of the screen”. This from full grown adults. I can understand teaching children left from right but is “hand” really necessary? Hell, I’ve even heard people talk about their “left hand shoe”! Maybe it’s a nitpick but it bothers the hell out of me. Why do people do this? Languages are imperfect and most contain some redundancy. “Left hand turn” is an example of redundancy. Much like saying “the truck is a red color”. A further example is requiring nouns and adjectives to agree in number - is this really necessary? That you need to say “one plate” vs. “two plate **s** ”? Well… no actually it isn’t. In English you have constructions like “one fish” and “two fish”, or “one deer” and “two deer”. Some languages don’t alter the adjectives to reflect number at all. All languages have a certain number of redundant or quirky traits, some a legacy of the past and some just… well, we don’t know why but the trait is there. Human languages are imperfect, just like humans. ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2022, 11:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hand-for-direction/965400/48 "2022-05-31T11:45:29Z")
> [@IvoryTowerDenizen](#): > > I actually do a quick look at my hand and see my wedding ring to verify “left”. I had an assistant who was like that. She would do the same thing. She also couldn’t mentally flip maps over and follow directions, but she was damn smart in other ways. She liked to claim that the only reason she hadn’t shown her husband the door was because a divorce would rob her of her only surefire method of telling directions. Of course Japanese like to joke like that. ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2022, 11:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hand-for-direction/965400/49 "2022-05-31T11:48:55Z")
I also struggle with sense of direction and mentally rotating objects, myself. ---
**Author:** ![Ruken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f475e1/32.png) [@Ruken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruken)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2022, 11:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hand-for-direction/965400/50 "2022-05-31T11:54:50Z")
> [@Richard\_Pearse](#): > > My mother is a very intelligent person who needs to hold her hand out to see which one makes an L shape before she can tell which way is left or right. I don’t understand the mental block either, but it’s there and it is common. A difficulty with this approach is that you have to know which way an L goes _and_ remember whether to look at your palm or the back of your hand. Both of which I struggled with when I was . . . young. Let’s just say young. ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2022, 11:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hand-for-direction/965400/51 "2022-05-31T11:56:49Z")
If I am giving directions, I would say: “Turn left at the church,” but I might also add: “Watch out for the potholes on the left-hand side.” With cars, we often used to talk about ‘nearside’ and ‘offside’. Many people were confused, so the modern parlance is ‘driver’s side’ and ‘passenger side’. ---
**Author:** ![a6ka97](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c2a13f/32.png) [@a6ka97](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/a6ka97)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2022, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hand-for-direction/965400/52 "2022-05-31T12:19:06Z")
> [@bob\_2](#): > > With cars, we often used to talk about ‘nearside’ and ‘offside’. Many people were confused, so the modern parlance is ‘driver’s side’ and ‘passenger side’. Then you get a car/people from a country that is right hand drive and they get confused. From childhood to a young adult I had issues with right hand/left hand. A coworker had a simple solution I still use today– Wedding rings are worn on your left hand. He told me the saying “lefty lovey, righty flighty” as to where the ring was on a woman (or man) and their marital status. I still catch myself when somebody says right or left and looking down and glancing at my wedding ring to confirm which direction is right or left. ---
**Author:** ![Schnitte](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/schnitte/32/9033_2.png) [@Schnitte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Schnitte)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2022, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hand-for-direction/965400/53 "2022-05-31T12:24:47Z")
> [@a6ka97](#): > > Wedding rings are worn on your left hand. You yourself pointed out that there are countries with left-hand traffic (and consequently right-hand drive). The same goes for wedding bands: In some continental European countries, it is customary to wear them on the right hand. Typically, in those countries engagement rings are (if they are worn at all) worn on the left hand, and in some regions there is the custom of using the same ring as engagement and wedding ring and then switching it to the other hand during the wedding ceremony. The situation is a bit in flux here because the Anglo-American wedding-ring-goes-on-the-left-hand rule is gaining ground as a result of cultural influence from films and TV shows, but the point is that using wedding rings as a mnemonic to tell right from left is no less culturally dependent than the side you drive your car on. ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2022, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hand-for-direction/965400/54 "2022-05-31T12:45:29Z")
> [@TokyoBayer](#): > > She also couldn’t mentally flip maps over and follow directions, but she was damn smart in other ways. Years ago I took up the hobby of flying radio-controlled gliders. Friends with relevant experience warned me of the difficulty of correctly steering the plane left or right when it’s coming toward you, but for some reason it was never an issue for me. > [@Peanuthead](#): > > Okay, I think we’re all full grown, normal adults here on the SDMB. Do you say “left HAND turn” when talking to another full grown, normal adult? Why? Or why not? Regardless of who I’m talking to, I give directions as “right” or “left”, but not out of any sense of technical nitpickery; it’s just what I grew up with. There are other contexts where I’ve never heard anybody use anything but “right-hand/left-hand” to indicate direction, even though hands have little to do with it. A couple of prominent examples: > **[Left- and right-hand traffic](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Left-_and_right-hand_traffic)** > > Left-hand traffic (LHT) and right-hand traffic (RHT) are the practices, in bidirectional traffic, of keeping to the left side and to the right side of the road, respectively. They are fundamental to traffic flow, and are sometimes called the rule of the road. The terms right- and left-hand drive refer to the position of the driver and the steering wheel in the vehicle and are, in automobiles, the reverse of the terms right- and left-hand traffic. The rule also includes where on the road a vehi... > **[Screw thread | Handedness](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Screw_thread#Handedness)** > > The helix of a thread can twist in two possible directions, which is known as handedness. Most threads are oriented so that the threaded item, when seen from a point of view on the axis through the center of the helix, moves away from the viewer when it is turned in a clockwise direction, and moves towards the viewer when it is turned counterclockwise. This is known as a right-handed (RH) thread, because it follows the right-hand grip rule. Threads oriented in the opposite direction are known as ... Screw thread chirality nomenclature goes to handedness because of the **[right-hand rule](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right-hand_rule)**, but there are perfectly valid alternatives we could have used instead: > **[Right-Hand Rule](https://xkcd.com/199/)** > > To really expand your mind try some noncartesian porn. Edwin Abbot Abbott has nothing on 'Girls on Girls in Tightly Closed Nonorientable Spaces'. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2022, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hand-for-direction/965400/55 "2022-05-31T12:57:15Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > All languages have a certain number of redundant or quirky traits, some a legacy of the past and some just… well, we don’t know why but the trait is there True, but see my previous post. Because talking and hearing are noisy and imperfect, redundancy in language is a feature, not a bug. (And yes, spoken language IS language, until recently in human history, and still is for many people in the world.) ---
**Author:** ![DorkVader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/73ab20/32.png) [@DorkVader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DorkVader)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2022, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hand-for-direction/965400/56 "2022-05-31T13:13:07Z")
Just wanted to say thanks. I never thought of spoken and written language that way before, what a fascinating way of conceptualizing words and the use of them. Ok hijack over ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2022, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hand-for-direction/965400/57 "2022-05-31T13:41:26Z")
> [@Richard\_Pearse](#): > > My mother is a very intelligent person who needs to hold her hand out to see which one makes an L shape before she can tell which way is left or right. I don’t understand the mental block either, but it’s there and it is common. But of course, as @Ruken noted, if your mother had _complete_ right/left “blindness” this wouldn’t work, because she needs to know left from right in order to know how to draw an “L”. If we got into remote communication with distant aliens, with no shared point of reference (we cannot both see the same galaxies), we might face this problem - could they derive which side we mean by “right” from the results of any experiment they could do locally? [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/Elt0Gt9Cb6Q/maxresdefault.jpg "How to Tell Matter From Antimatter | CP Violation & The Ozma Problem") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Elt0Gt9Cb6Q) [CP violation - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CP_violation#Indirect_CP_violation) (This is probably not such a convenient method for your mother.) ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2022, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hand-for-direction/965400/58 "2022-05-31T13:55:21Z")
> [@a6ka97](#): > > From childhood to a young adult I had issues with right hand/left hand. A coworker had a simple solution I still use today– > > Wedding rings are worn on your left hand. He told me the saying “lefty lovey, righty flighty” as to where the ring was on a woman (or man) and their marital status. I still catch myself when somebody says right or left and looking down and glancing at my wedding ring to confirm which direction is right or left. My mother was ambidextrous and had the same issue, with the same solution. My father was strongly right-handed and could not understand why she needed to do that. ---
**Author:** ![Mijin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mijin/32/9369_2.png) [@Mijin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mijin)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2022, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hand-for-direction/965400/59 "2022-05-31T13:58:52Z")
Yep it may be another British vs American english thing: Brit here, I can’t recall the last time I heard left-hand or right-hand in terms of direction. I do hear the left hand _side_ to refer to a portion / section of something, but I would say that just saying “the left side” is probably more common, especially for young people. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2022, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hand-for-direction/965400/60 "2022-05-31T14:01:11Z")
> [@bob\_2](#): > > If I am giving directions, I would say: “Turn left at the church,” but I might also add: “Watch out for the potholes on the left-hand side.” Yes, this is probably how my usual language usage patterns are. I normally use a plain “left” or “right,” like for turns, but it’s not unlikely I’d say something like, “the house is on the right hand side.” Why? I dunno. Just sounds and feels right to me. I assume I’m just echoing speech as I’ve heard it spoken. And, no, mixing up left and right or not knowing left and right is not a sign of low intelligence or “retardation.” My wife is a PhD with standardized scores through the roof, and she constantly mixes the two up: she’ll be pointing right and saying “left”. Some people just aren’t wired that way, and it takes some lack of empathy to not recognize this. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hand-for-direction/965400.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-hand-for-direction/965400.md?page=4)