Right of Way for Right-Handed Writers

My mom likes to tell me that I developed my love of words, and abstract thinking skills, very early on. Her favorite story is from when I was about 4-years old and I turned to her one day saying, "Mommy, there are three kinds of right. Right, like turning right; right, like being right; and write like writing my name." She tells me that she just stared at me for a few seconds after that not knowing how to respond to my profound analysis of language.

I had learned my very first homonym that day. And a homophone too, I guess.

Fast forward nearly a quarter-century and you'll find me proofing the Spanish translation of a press release this morning. I grew up in Texas where we started learning the Spanish alphabet shortly after we learned the English letters in kindergarten. So my Spanish is decent. I can read it pretty well but I lack the confidence to try to speak fluently.

I didn't even try to translate the press release but I was able to proofread it for typos, glaring errors and things like that. So I'm reading it over and I come across the phrase "derecho a paso". Hmmm...I know what that is supposed to say in english, but can it really be that simple?

The word, in Spanish, for right (as in right hand) is derecha. In adjective form it can be derecho when used with a masculine noun. Could it possibly be that Spanish too has homonyms for right? No, that's such a longshot it can't be....right....teeheehee

The English phrase that translated as 'derechoa paso' is 'right of way'. So, I did a little web searching on the subject and, sure enough, derecho/a is a homonym for right and right. I'm sure you can figure out which two 'rights' I'm talking about. It turns out that derecho/a can also mean conservative, straight ahead, straigh up and down, forward and many other interesting English words that make it all the more interesting.

Now I've got to call my mom and tell her about the different kinds of 'derecha' - I know she'll be amused.