Why do some words in different languages have the same multiple meanings?

Question

Take the English word “right”. It can mean “true, correct”, but it can also be used in something like “human rights”.

Now take the Arabic word حق. Again, it can mean “true, correct” and the “rights” in “human rights”.

It makes sense for a word to have the same single meaning across different languages. But what is the likeliness that two languages have a word that share the same multiple meanings?

In: Other

Answer 1

I noticed on the packaging on some new drumsticks, the translation was “baguette”.

I chuckled because it’s silly that a drumstick and a bread stick are the same word!

And I went back to eating my chicken leg and working on that Neil Peart solo, completely unaware of the irony.