Itchy right hand
An itchy right hand means money is coming, or that you will soon shake hands with a stranger.
Body superstition
Right hand superstitions
Right hand superstitions: give and greet with the right hand; an itching right palm means money arriving. First recorded: Roman era; dexter meaning right gave us "dexterity". That makes it around 2,000 years old — joint 15th oldest of the 45 superstitions we have dated.
- Earliest record
- Roman era see the history below
When it actually starts
How old is this one
First recorded
Roman era; dexter meaning right gave us "dexterity"
That makes it
around 2,000 years old
Rank by age
Joint 15th oldest of 45 dated here
Category
Body
The mirror of the left-hand belief and just as old. Many languages tie the right hand to skill and correctness — dexterous from Latin dexter, adroit from French à droit — even though Roman augurs counted the left as the lucky side.
Why it stuck. Every language that encodes right as good gives the belief free reinforcement each time anyone speaks.
14 of the dated superstitions here were written down earlier and 18 later, while 12 share its date.
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The versions people follow
What exactly is believed
The right side is lucky
Across many cultures the right side is the lucky, honest side — the "right-hand man".
Right foot first
Entering a new home, a temple or a new year right foot first brings good luck.
Oaths with the right hand
Oaths are sworn with the right hand raised, a gesture of honesty inherited from Roman custom.
Where it lives today
Shaking hands, swearing oaths and saluting all use the right hand, and the associations of "right" with correctness live on in the word itself.
What people say
Give and greet with the right hand; an itching right palm means money arriving.What is going on
About 90% of people are right-handed, so the "correct" hand is simply the majority one.Where it applies. Near-universal, and formalized as etiquette across the Islamic world and South Asia.
Nearest in age
Right hand superstitions are joint 15th oldest of the 45 dated superstitions here. Of those, 3 date from 1900 or later and 14 predate the common era.
First-recorded dates are the earliest documented appearance in written sources, not the earliest possible origin — an unrecorded practice can be older. How the dating works and where it is uncertain →
Cite this page
AstroHot. “Right Hand Superstitions: Origin, Meaning and When It Began.” Accessed October 28, 2026. https://astrohot.com/superstitions/right-hand/
For Wikipedia
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