On Thu, 18 Aug 1994, Will Zehring wrote:
> The terms in question are "near side" and "off side," meaning as best as I
> can fathom the left and right hand side of the car, from an occupant's
> perspective. All is fine, except I would guess that the "near" side ought
> to be the driver's side (i.e. the side closest to the driver, which it
> ain't) and the "off" side ought to be the passenger side (the side away from
> the driver, which it ain't, either). Can anyone who speaks non-American
> English as a native explain? [stuff deleted]
I'm as American as you, but I can explain. The terms originated in the
horse world, where the near side is the side you mount up from (the
horse's left). The Brits used to apply the same terminology to their
cars, even though the driver of a right hand drive car "mounts up" from
the right. It makes no difference whether the car is right hand drive or
left hand drive - the near side is always the left side.
Old British manuals used to refer to near and off sides instead of left
and right. Confused the hell out of American owners who made the
seemingly logical assumptions that the near side was the side the driver
entered on (wrong in the case of an RHD car), or that if the near side on
an RHD car was the left, then the near side on an LHD car must be the right.
The near side is always the left side.
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Chip Old 1948 M.G. TC TC6710 NEMGTR #2271
feold@umd5.umd.edu 1962 Triumph TR4 CT3154LO (daily transportation)
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