I've been reading about the French Revolution and one of the fascinating things I discovered is that the political terms left and right date back to that time, to 1792 to be precise. A fringe group of radicals chose to sit together on the left side of the National Assembly and everyone else crossed the floor to sit on the right. The rest is history.
9 comments:
Not many people know that, said Michael Caine.
I bet a lot of people do though. Maybe if I'd paid more attention at school I'd have known it too.
Interesting that the word 'gauche' has such a negative connotation when used in the English language. The word derivation dates back to the 18thC, so it must have been because of the Revolution. I love all this stuff.
This is news to me! Fascinating fact.
One of my favorite subjects to teach!
Why won't the Black Box send me here? :-)
the black box is rigged
somewhere between a child and a teenager, I thought it was rive gauche and rive droite.
Absolutely fascinating...Oooohhh I do love learning new interesting things!!
C x
Facinating facts, will see if I have room in my head for that one 1792. Maybe if I have a tidy up I can squeeze it in.
willow - so that's at least two of us that didn't know it then :)
fred - you made it! Hope your students are more attentive that I used to be at school. That's why I'm studying now.
marc - how is it rigged? Do tell.
carol - so glad people didn't know it. As I drafted it I thought ' what if I'm the only person who didn't know this?'
Blu - better make some space as there will be more facts coming any day now.
memo to self - stop messing about on here and get on with your essay.
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