Why do ships use “port” and “starboard” instead of “left” and “right?”
It&#x27;s interesting to compare how different professions handle the ambiguity in left&#x2F;right.  In the maritime world they went with an approach at one extreme, where they just use two completely separate words, &quot;port&quot; and &quot;starboard.&quot;  (Though that&#x27;s far from the only case where there&#x27;s a special word for something on a boat.)<p>At the other extreme you have the medical profession where the first thing you learn in medical school is that left&#x2F;right <i>always</i> refer to the patient&#x27;s perspective.  You could imagine that the maritime world could have gone with a similar convention.  But the downside is that on very rare occasions someone along the way gets confused and the doctor operates on the wrong side of the body.<p>The theatrical world takes an intermediate approach, where they use the terms &quot;stage left &#x2F; stage right&quot;, which always refer to the perspective of an actor onstage facing the audience.  Then the word &quot;stage&quot; tells you the perspective, but you still keep the words left&#x2F;right so you don&#x27;t have to memorize two completely separate words.