Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun The direction along a meridian 90° clockwise from east; the direction to the right of sunrise.
- noun The cardinal point on the mariner's compass 180° clockwise from due north and directly opposite north.
- noun An area or region lying in the south.
- noun The southern part of the earth.
- noun The set of developing nations of the world, largely located to the south of the developed nations of the Northern Hemisphere.
- noun The southern part of a region or country.
- noun The southern part of the United States, especially the states that fought for the Confederacy in the Civil War.
- adjective To, toward, of, facing, or in the south.
- adjective Originating in or coming from the south.
- adverb In, from, or toward the south.
- adverb Slang Into a worse or inferior condition, as of decreased value.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Toward, to, or at the south; of winds, from the south.
- To move or veer toward the south.
- In astronomy, to cross the meridian of a place: as, the moon souths at nine.
- noun That one of the four cardinal points of the compass which is directly opposite to the north, and is on the left when one faces in the direction of the setting sun (west). Abbreviated S.
- noun The region, tract, country, or locality lying opposite to the north, or lying toward the south pole from some other region; in the broadest and most general sense, in the northern hemisphere, the tropics or subtropical regions; in Europe, the Mediterranean region, often with reference to the African or Asiatic coast.
- noun Specifically In United States history and politics, the Southern States (which see, under
state ). - noun The wind that blows from the south.
- noun Eccles., the side of a church that is on the right hand of one who faces the altar or high altar. See
east , 1, and epistle. - Being in the south; situated in the south, or in a southern direction from the point of observation; lying toward the south; pertaining to the south; proceeding from the south.
- Eccles., situated at or near that side of a church which is to the right of one facing the altar or high altar.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun That one of the four cardinal points directly opposite to the north; the region or direction to the right or direction to the right of a person who faces the east.
- noun A country, region, or place situated farther to the south than another; the southern section of a country.
- noun Specifically: That part of the United States which is south of Mason and Dixon's line. See under
Line . - noun obsolete The wind from the south.
- adjective Lying toward the south; situated at the south, or in a southern direction from the point of observation or reckoning; proceeding toward the south, or coming from the south; blowing from the south; southern.
- adjective (Bot.) See
Yaupon . - adverb Toward the south; southward.
- adverb From the south.
- intransitive verb To turn or move toward the south; to veer toward the south.
- intransitive verb (Astron.) To come to the meridian; to cross the north and south line; -- said chiefly of the moon.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun One of the four major
compass points , specifically 180°, directed toward theSouth Pole , and conventionallydownwards on a map. - adjective Toward the south;
southward . - adjective meteorology Of wind, from the south.
- adjective Of or pertaining to the south;
southern . - adjective Pertaining to the part of a
corridor used bysouthbound traffic . - adverb Toward the south;
southward . - adverb Downward.
- adverb In an adverse direction or trend.
- adverb meteorology Of wind, from the south.
- verb To turn or move toward the south; to
veer toward the south. - verb astronomy To come to the
meridian ; to cross the north and south line.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun the cardinal compass point that is at 180 degrees
- noun the southern states that seceded from the United States in 1861
- adjective situated in or facing or moving toward or coming from the south
- adverb in a southern direction
- noun the region of the United States lying to the south of the Mason-Dixon line
- noun the direction corresponding to the southward cardinal compass point
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Remote parts of the South: While most of the focus has been on NOLA, I am more concerned about the rest of the south.
Katrina: Big Picture in Brief Chris Heuer 2005
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Remote parts of the South: While most of the focus has been on NOLA, I am more concerned about the rest of the south.
Archive 2005-08-28 Chris Heuer 2005
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Under South African law, arms cannot be sold to Yemen because of this year's fighting between north and south.
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South of the equator the recurrence of the seasons is the exact reverse of their recurrence north of the equator, and therefore the breeding season of the birds is in the autumn instead of the spring; the flight from winter cold occurs in the spring instead of in the autumn, and is toward the north instead of toward the south.
Our Bird Comrades 1896
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And the act of Parliament makes _this south side_ from this same bay along those highlands, and it must _inevitably run west_ or _it is no south_ boundary.
A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents Volume 3, part 2: Martin Van Buren 1878
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At an event on Friday, former South African President Thabo Mbeki - the African Union's mediator on Sudan - said the vote marks the "true emancipation" of the people of the south.
BBC News - Home 2011
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In the upper middle class South African household, ages 18 - 24 there is hardly a difference to be noticed in behaviour north and south.
Muti 2009
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Support, encourage and strengthen your own South Sudanese hotels and products, because the money is going to remain in south.
unknown title 2009
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In the upper middle class South African household, ages 18 - 24 there is hardly a difference to be noticed in behaviour north and south.
Muti 2009
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The South Shields MP visited friends in Charlton, south
Mirror.co.uk - News 2010
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Over three weeks in 2019, Kaefer spent time at three English-speaking Antarctic stations observing and gathering data from workers based on what the US station refers to as “The Ice”, or the British call the “South”.
Fidlets, fingies and riding a doo: study sheds light on Antarctic English slang Eva Corlett 2024
vanishedone commented on the word south
From Hardy's Plena Timoris:
'The moon in its southing directly blent
Its silver with their environment.'
November 3, 2007
bilby commented on the word south
One of the most ridiculous collections of WeirdNet defs I have yet seen.
August 20, 2008
seanahan commented on the word south
I don't know, most of the WordNet defs tend to make a lot of sense. The southeast and southwest ones are kind of confusing, but the rest seem valid.
August 21, 2008
bilby commented on the word south
"a demarcated area of the Earth" and "a point or extent in space" do my head in. That's even before "the spatial relation between something and the course along which it points or moves". Or the USA-centric 'main' definition ... should dictionaries have to ape cultural myopia, real or perceived?
As you say there are these ones: "situated in or oriented toward the southeast" ... 6 of them!
August 21, 2008
chained_bear commented on the word south
I would venture the guess that this particular dictionary was created by and perhaps mostly for Americans, and the usage in which they most often encounter the word in reading, etc. (especially when it's capitalized) is the region rather than the cardinal direction. Just sayin'.
August 21, 2008
bilby commented on the word south
I also note that WeirdNet didn't include a usage of South I have heard a few times, that is as a term of reference to the underdeveloped world.
August 21, 2008
chained_bear commented on the word south
Bizarre! I never heard that usage. Where have you seen/heard it?
August 21, 2008
seanahan commented on the word south
Bilby, when examining the Wordnet page for South, we determine that the U.S. sense of South, that being the southern part of the country, has the highest frequency count. This is due to the frequency found in tagged texts, which simply means that word came up the most often.
The two you dislike, which don't occur in the WordNet entry linked above, make some sense, "a demarcated area of the Earth" is for when "south" is used to refer to the Southern Hemisphere. Similarly, "a point or extent in space" makes sense geometrically, we can talk about the southern part of a shape in several dimensions. Without more information from WordNet, I can't narrow it down further.
Finally, WordNet is not a dictionary, it is a "lexical database".
August 22, 2008
chained_bear commented on the word south
"Hit Songs of the 1970s and '80s If the South Had Won the Civil War."
September 3, 2008
bilby commented on the word south
c_b, I don't know where South with that meaning came from, although it's fairly obvious that it refers to developing countries being largely in the southern hemisphere compared to industrialised countries being mostly in the north. There used to be a magazine about international development titled South though I'm not sure it's still around. The South Centre certainly is:
"The South Centre (the Centre) is an intergovernmental organization of developing countries established by an Intergovernmental Agreement (Treaty) which came into force on 31 July 1995 with its headquarters in Geneva.
The South Centre has grown out of the work and experience of the South Commission and its follow-up mechanism, and from recognition of the need for enhanced South-South co-operation. The Report of the South Commission -- emphasized that the South is not well organized at the global level and has thus not been effective in mobilizing its considerable combined expertise and experience, nor its bargaining power.
The South Centre is therefore intended to meet the need for analysis of development problems and experience, as well as to provide intellectual and policy support required by developing countries for collective and individual action, particularly in the international arena."
- www.southcentre.org
September 9, 2008
Prolagus commented on the word south
South of the world, as a synonym for underdeveloped countries, was a common usage at least in Italy when I was in primary school (I was born in 1980). I can't remember if I ever heard it afterwards.
September 9, 2008
rolig commented on the word south
I think I first heard "South" used in the sense of the poorer countries of the world sometime in the late 80s, when the Cold War was fading and "East–West" issues were becoming less important than "North–South" issues. Perhaps as the "Second World" of industrialized ideologically based command economies disappeared, it made less sense to talk about the "Third World" of non-industrialized, largely authoritarian clan- or family-based economies.
September 9, 2008
chained_bear commented on the word south
I appreciate you all taking the time to cite usages. :) (Bilby, thanks for the URL especially.) I honestly don't think I've ever heard the word used this way in the United States. When Americans say "South" (with a capital S), even if we're using it as a pejorative, we're usually talking about the U.S. South (i.e. the former Confederacy). Maybe I missed something, but that's a new-to-me usage. Thanks again to my fellow wordie-denizens for teaching me something new.
September 9, 2008
reesetee commented on the word south
I hadn't heard it used in that sense either, c_b, until I read the most recent postings here. Then it seemed to suddenly pop up in several articles I read immediately after. Maybe it was because it had been "flagged" in my mind. :-)
September 9, 2008