The word "left"

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This word can mean both gone and not gone. Here's what I mean:-

When I first started work there were 6 people who I liked and got to know and got used to, then 5 of them left the company (not all at once, just in the time I've been working here). The other day I was gossiping with someone who was saying about the "original" people are leaving one by one, and he said about the last person to have left (let's just call him Jack). There's only one "original" one left now (let's just call him John), so I said, "yeah, John's just left." The man I was speaking to thought I meant John has just left the company, but what I meant was John is the only one left out of the first lot who were first in the company.

So saying "John's left" can either mean John has left the company or John is the one remaining in the company. And you can even say it in the same time of voice and it can still be misunderstood.

So yeah, "left" is a strange word.

Everyone else has left.
So he is the only one left.

Yeah. That is kinda funny. Never noticed that before.

Both meanings, PLUS the third meaning of "the opposite side from right" are in this old drill sergeant marching doggerel:

"Left,left, left, I left my wife and 24 children in starving condition with only ginger bread left...left, left. left...."

But "left" is not as bad as "sanction", which also means the opposite of itself. It can mean allow, or it mean can mean punish . You hear both meanings in the news all of the time. Both journalists and politicians use both meanings constantly without being the slightest bit bothered by the confusing opposite meanings.

"The president is re imposing sanctions on Iran, but the EU doesn't sanction those renewed sanctions!"

While right has always been used to describe good or positive things, left has too often been used to describe something bad or negative:

If someone is clumsy, they have "two left feet".

If someone says what sounds like a compliment but really an insult, it's called a "left-handed compliment".

And of course, "sinister" comes from Latin and literally means left. Your left hand is supposed to be your sinister hand. But many lefties like myself are embracing that word.