The adjective gauche means “lacking social grace”, “awkward”, or “crude”. It comes from the French word gauche, meaning “left”, which came from a similar but older French word that meant “to trample” or “walk clumsily” (see the OED for more).
Now why would the word for “awkward” be so closely related to the word for “left”? And why does the word “right” also mean “correct”? Clearly, one direction is considered better than the other. Check out Wikipedia’s blurb on the social stigma of left-handedness for some more language trivia that at least partially explains the bias.
Hmm, I wonder if I am that word? Woo hoo, I am in the 7% of the population. (I’m left handed)
I believe the idea of the left being less favorable than the right dates back to Jacob whenhe fought with God & God withered his left side & he became Israel. Since then all thing demining or liberal or crass are left. In tha days gone by it was thought be lefthanded was to be handicapped & Mothers used to retrain children to write with their right hand.
Sincerely~ JK Legans