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In a conversation on reddit today someone asked if other languages have phrases like "rightie tightie, leftie loosie" to remember which way to turn screws/lids/etc. And one person answers that in Spanish, the phrase is: "La derecha oprime, la izquierda libera." or: "The right oppresses, the left liberates." (Now I kind of want to put this on a t shirt) 166 comments
 @unicornCoder @sarahbecan Did you try putting the separate phrases on the left and right sides of the shirt? Just thinking and it might not work out, idk. @sarahbecan Spanish native speaker, never heard the phrase used with that purpose. One abre/cierra grifos/llaves but never oprime one of them. @Klaxun @FisherTX14 @sarahbecan Looks like Mark Hamill and Tom Selleck did the Dragon Ball Z fusion dance.    Honestly, "Rightie Tightie, Lefty Loosie" is terrible, because there is still ambiguity. Right from the top of the bolt, or the bottom of the bolt? From your face, or the bolt's face? There is generally a better frame of reference: Clockwise (and Counter Clockwise), since it's defined already by a standard. Thus is born, CCW = OFF, CW = ON (unless you have an infernal left-handed screw, but those are quite rare). @atatassault @sarahbecan most people don't see the world from the perspective of the screw. @Klaxun @atatassault @sarahbecan I disagree, most people are aware that they're getting screwed.   @atatassault Indeed. If you're using a wrench, with the handle towards you, the rule is the exact opposite. I'm not aware of such a rule existing in my language. There may be one, but certainly not as widely known as the one in English. @veronica @atatassault My language also lacks a specific expression for this. I always tried both ways until high-school when I noticed that the direction to turn a bolt/wrench matches with the right-hand rule for Ampère's law. Ever since, I've been mentally visualizing in which direction should the bolt turn to come out or go in… but I admit it's not a very scalable approach 😅.
@veronica See, I dont even understand the directions you mean with your wrench example. Right and Left have no meaning for a rotational axis.  @atatassault @sarahbecan Not as rare as you might think, speaking as a former mechanic. (Motorbike, outboard motor, marine diesel etc.) @atatassault @sarahbecan I used to encounter left handed screws a lot and we had a running joke of "lefty-tighty, righty-loosey" lol @atatassault @sarahbecan that's how I've always understood it. @atatassault @sarahbecan Totally get this. What do right and left have to do with it? I'm not going sideways, I'm trying to make this thing move up or down by rotating it! @atatassault @sarahbecan and here we get into pet peeves like... why do water taps adher to this (I know, it's the mechanics of a screw) but volume controls and stove heat controls are the opposite? Why aren't all "turn controls" the same?  @WhyNotZoidberg @atatassault @sarahbecan I don't know why volume controls are the way they are but I believe stove heat controls are the opposite because of the legacy of gas stoves. All the screws and bolts in natural gas systems are lefty-tighty, righty-loosey for safety, so people who don't know what they're doing will tend to tighten things instead of loosening them. @atatassault @sarahbecan  @leadore CW/CCW has one perspective issue (looking from the cap end, or the tip end/hole), whereas left/right has *two*: that one, plus whether you're looking at the lateral movement at the top or the bottom of the circle of motion. I often get confused about the latter, but never the former, since I am almost always manipulating the screw from cap end, even if I'm looking at it from another angle. Right or left from what frame of reference? Since that nmeumonic doesnt establish an FoR, you cant tell. But CCW and CW have implicit frames of reference since they're literally defined by how analog clocks work. @atatassault @sarahbecan That's always bugged me as well, but I recently learned a much better CW/CCW version: Time's getting tight! You can also think in terms of the right hand rule, if you're familiar with vectors. Point your right thumb in the direction you want the fastener to go, rotate it in the direction your fingers curl.  @atatassault @sarahbecan I've heard "Clockwise to Close", but the reverse doesn't work... @atatassault @sarahbecan if you rotate a screw around so the head faces away from you (or, more likely, if you are unscrewing something on the other side of something) that also reverses clockwise/counterclockwise. The ambiguity still exists. This is frequently confusing to people and it would be just as confusing with your reframing. There's simply no way to know how to loosen a given screw without the ability to visualize its spacial relation to you. The left oppresses, too, at least if you mean the far left. Communism is just another form of totalitarianism, no better than fascism. @sarahbecan @donmelton I feel that this is unfair about tightened screws starting with if you are sitting down.  @sarahbecan historically, the left has oppressed as much as the right. But, yes, in the western world now, the danger is on the right.  @sarahbecan My mother always said: »Nach links geht's zur Freiheit« (»Left is the way to freedom«)  @sarahbecan This is glorious. I'm glad I chose to learn Spanish. @sarahbecan "Rechts ist, wo der Daumen links ist." (German)   @sarahbecan @fsvo Presumably in the former Soviet bloc, jar lids are made to turn the other way. @sarahbecan I find it interesting that the Spanish mnemonic device's more political saying is still a 1 for 1 for the english one for screw tightening/loosening @sarahbecan that's fantastic. While trying to get an Italian version of "Big fraidy cat" for my dog I had to settle for Grande spavantoso Gatto. Super cool but he ain't liberating. @biggie @sarahbecan Spaventoso means frightening, not frightened, so grande spaventoso gatto (grande gatto spaventoso would be the more usual word order) means big terrifying cat, not big terrified cat. 🙀 There's no Italian expression with gatto that means fraidy/scaredy cat. Best to call your poor pooch a fifone (pronounced fee-FOH-né) instead (or a fifona if it's a female). :blobcatdrakeyes: @sarahbecan I did an apprenticeship in electrical engineering in Germany. The instructors there were a bit older, and the saying applied there: "Solang das deutsche Reich besteht, werden Schrauben rechts gedreht." "As long as the German Reich exists, screws will be turned to the right." As you can see, it rhymes better in German. The German Reich no longer exists, but screws continue to be tightened to the right.  @KleinerWuuki @sarahbecan I *think* (but don’t know) that the historical background for the German saying is this: General technical norms (eg. which way to thread a screw) only really began to be established when the German states were unified into the Reich in 1871. Before that, most states would have had their own norms, or none at all. @slothrop @sarahbecan That certainly sounds plausible. But whether it is exactly like that, I unfortunately don't know either. @KleinerWuuki   @sarahbecan There's a danger that some people might think that the slogan was referring to your... erm... 'lady frontage'?! @sarahbecan Another way to look at it though is that, when moving towards the left, everything comes apart. Lol. @wdlindsy @sarahbecan Yep. Making that phrasing the way to remember how to turn a screw? Constant. @trumpstinyhands @sarahbecan The need for any saying at all to tell people how to turn a screw eludes me, but if there has to be a saying, I find the Spanish one clever. @sarahbecan Hello, nowadays the terms left and right are becoming outdated due to the growing similarities between both. The issue has moved to choose between populism and republic. At least that's what is going on in Latin America lately. @sarahbecan Hmmm interesting question. I don't know if we have that but we kinda start turning a screw and if it doens't get looser we say "Jebemtimater ne ta stran!" Repeat with more force till it finally starts getting looser and say "Jebote napokon". @sarahbecan @SeamusPM Do you still know someone at Northern Sun or whatever became of that T-shirt business? @davepolaschek I no longer know anyone there, it’s been years. However, it looks like they’re still in business. Online, only though. The retail store is closed.  @sarahbecan @cyanidedansen unsurprisingly, the German version of this is closely linked to nazi culture. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ @sarahbecan My Spanish is nearly nil, but from hearing "oprime dos" a bazillion times on business lines, I suspect that "oprime" could also just be translated as "press". @GregSergienko @sarahbecan Words often have multiple meanings. In English we also use the word "press" in this exact same sense when we say "oppress" (which just means "to press downward") @sarahbecan @hollie please send me the link when you sell them at Cotton Bureau  Three years ago I made this. If you want to translate it I can put somewhere the Inkscape SVG file. [EDIT] Since this toot is more boosted than the last of the thread the SVG is here:  @GustavinoBevilacqua @sarahbecan That’s awesome! Are you ok with others spreading it? Here is, for a week, the SVG I made with Inkscape 0.92 (I know it's old, but I'm migrating computer… this one has to be upgraded). I modified the first drawing to use a free font (Fava). Don't forget to post your own version, my drawing is Public Domain! @GustavinoBevilacqua @sarahbecan I'll wait for the SVG, but in the meantime I'd render it into colloquial Rioplatense Spanish like this: ¿No sabés para dónde girar el tornillo? Te la explico: La derecha aprieta. La izquierda libera. @GustavinoBevilacqua @sarahbecan I'm no designer and I didn't find the font you used, but I hope it is not entirely ruined 🤣 👏 👏 👏 👏 The original font, Ultraquick¹, is free just for personal use, so I changed to Fava Black², pretty similar and in public domain. ~~ @GustavinoBevilacqua @sarahbecan @GustavinoBevilacqua @SmilaBlomma   @sarahbecan wait so when the phone menu says "para espanol, oprime dos", it's actually saying "oppress two"?  @sarahbecan I'm now going to have to forget which way screws work so I can use that. @sarahbecan @attoparsec The original *Italian* context had an illustration of a screwdriver (and free to use, if I read correctly) Since reading @sarahbecan’s observation that “La derecha oprime, la izquierda libera” would make a great T shirt slogan I keep thinking of an illustration depicting cowed media twisting dril’s “Racism” dial while watching the usual ne’er-do-wells for approval … yo @sexenheimer know anyone you could commission to design a Yeah, Nah Pasarán! t-shirt in red and white on black? @sarahbecan for the shirt it should be the full meme, is like "si atornillas recuerda camarada, la derecha oprime y la izquierda libera"
@sarahbecan I find it much more fascinating that these phrases actually help people because it's not how I think. If I look down on bottle with a screw cap, my index turns right but my thumb turns left.  @sarahbecan @sarahbecan — me, too … & there’s a t-shirt imprinted that’s a nice walk from here on a sunny day.   @sarahbecan "The right oppresses, the left liberates"! Fascinating! If this appears on a tee-shirt or sticker, I'll buy! @sarahbecan I think that personen made it up. He/she fooled you. How about:"diestro apretado , zurdo suelto" This is fabulous. It would make the best t-shirt!! How will you make it available, so I can watch for it? 💜 🖖🏻 🐻 🪶 @sarahbecan spanish doesn't use that phrase like "rightie tightie..." that's a purely political mnemonic. Not sure what spaniard told you that, but it's definitely not true. |
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