Regarding your note there are other examples of false friends which make for funny pairs. Italian "sinistro" is left, but in French (and from there English) "sinistre/sinister" has a completely different meaning. Now we have a similar thing between French and English: "gauche" means left in French but "Lacking grace or social polish; awkward or tactless" in English.

It's actually interesting how the left and right have such a strong figurative meaning to them, left being bad (sinister, gauche, etc...) and right being... well, righteous. It's embedded deeply in our languages.