Right wing - always right?

he terms "Right wing" and "Left Wing" date back to pre-revolutionary France. In 1789, the French National Assembly was created as a parliamentary body to move control of issues, such as taxation, from the king to the citizenry.

Inside the chamber where the National Assembly met, members of the Third Estate sat on the left side and members of the First Estate sat on the right. The Third Estate consisted of revolutionaries, while the First Estate were nobles. Thus, the left wing of the room was more liberal, and the right wing was more conservative

"Right" can also mean "correct," while the Latin term for "left" suggests "sinister" behavior. We suspect that those on the political right wing appreciate these connotations more than those on the left.