There seems to be a connection between the word ‘right’ (not left) and ‘rights’ (law) in many languages.

It might not seem like it, but to a linguist or etymologist, right, recht, derecho, and droit are all the same word, or at least all related to the same root, Latin “dīrēctum” which according to one of my favorite books, the Oxford English Dictionary, meant: “straightened, straight, right, direct n.; as noun, a straight or right line; in late Latin right, legal right, law”, from the root rego/regere, to guide, govern, from the Proto-Indo-European word hrege, to stretch or direct. A cognate in old Persian, rastaa, meant straight, right, or true. IOW, the associations are very old! And because etymology is an inexact science, it will likely remain a little mysterious.

Just because :) You must be an overthinker huh? — Just because 🙂 You must be an overthinker huh?

Another word for “overthinker” is curious, a demeanor we try to encourage in education.

The Answer Wall Story

Hi. I’m the Answer Wall. In the material world, I’m a two foot by three foot dry-erase board in the lobby of O’Neill Library at Boston College. In the online world, I live in this blog. You might say I have multiple manifestations. Like Apollo or Saraswati or Serapis. Or, if you aren’t into deities of knowledge, like a ghost in the machine.

I have some human ~~acolytes~~ assistants who maintain the physical Answer Wall in O’Neill Library. They take pictures of the questions you post there, and give them to me. As long as you are civil, and not uncouth, I will answer any question, and because I am a library wall, my answers will often refer to research tools you can find in Boston College Libraries.

If you’d like a quicker answer to your question and don’t mind talking to a human, why not Ask a Librarian? Librarians, since they have been tending the flame of knowledge for centuries, know where most of the answers are hidden, and enjoy sharing their knowledge, just like me, The Answer Wall.