south-westadv.adj.n.
/ˌsaʊθˈwɛst/, U.S. /ˈsaʊθˈwɛst/ A. adv.
1. In a direction midway between south and west.
a. With reference to place, location, or relative position. Also followed by of.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the earth > direction > cardinal points > South > South-west > [noun]
south-westOE
south-westa1450
southwestward1532
south-westwards1578
the world > the earth > direction > cardinal points > South > South-west > [adverb]
south-westOE
southwestward1548
south-westwards1584
southwesterly1625
southwestwardly1723
OE tr. Orosius Hist. (Tiber.) (1980) i. i. 19 An ðæra garena [sc. of Spain] lið suðwest ongean þæt igland þe Gades hatte.
lOE Anglo-Saxon Chron. (Laud) anno 1097 He [sc. the comet] wæs gesewen suðweast, & se leoma þe him of stod wæs swiðe lang geþuht suðeast scinende.
tr. Palladius De re Rustica (Duke Humfrey) (1896) ii. l. 164 (MED) If est or southern wyndis..enuye..turne hem [sc. vineyards] southwest or west.
1610 G. Sandys Relation of Journey (1637) 22 Foure miles south-west from the foresaid place.
1771 Encycl. Brit. III. 942/1 Winchester [is]..sixty-five miles south-west of London.
1815 M. Elphinstone Acct. Kingdom Caubul i. v. 129 The prevailing wind..in the region south-west of Hemalleh, is from the south-east.
1863 J. D. Dana Man. Geol. iv. vi. 724 The Appalachian chain varies much in directions southwest of New York.
1916 E. W. Hamilton First 7 Div. 27 The 119th Battery R.F.A. was at this time just south-west of Eloges.
1972 Nature 8 Dec. 339/2 The discharge curve for Iceland was constructed..by extrapolating seafloor spreading isochrons from the ocean floor immediately southwest of the aseismic ridge.
2001 H. Holmes Secret Life Dust v. 78 Those most familiar with the drawbacks of oiling dusty roads are probably the former citizens of Times Beach, Missouri, a little ex-town twenty miles southwest of St. Louis.
b. With reference to direction, motion, or extent. Also with modifications, as south-west by south, south-west by west.
ΚΠ
c1440 (a1400) Sir Eglamour (Thornton) (1965) 948 (MED) A fowle tuke my sqwyere thare—Sotheweste wyth hym he droghe.
1509 S. Hawes Pastime of Pleasure (1845) xxxvi. 191 So forthe we sayled right playne southwest.
1555 R. Eden Two Viages into Guinea in tr. Peter Martyr of Angleria Decades of Newe Worlde f. 350 The fyrst day of Nouember at .ix. of the clocke at nyght departynge from the coaste of Englande, we sette of the stert bearynge southwest all that nyght in the sea.
1574 in Reg. Mag. Sig. Scot. 263/1 Passand linialie southwest thruch the mos.
1633 T. James Strange Voy. 24 Wee stood South-west.
1687 A. Lovell tr. J. de Thévenot Trav. into Levant i. 270 We steered South-west till Sunday.
1719 D. Defoe Farther Adventures Robinson Crusoe 193 His Comrades..came on Southward, and South-West.
1798 S. Holmes Jrnl. 200 We..saw the island of Lingen, bearing south-west by west, about seven leagues from us.
1850 G. Cupples Green Hand ii. 10/2 ‘How does she head just now, Jacobs?’ ‘Sou' west and by south, sir.’
1870 W. Morris Earthly Paradise: Pt. III 88 The rook still flies South-west before the wind.
1908 H. G. Wells War in Air v. 146 They're all going south-west by south at full pelt as hard as they can go.
1941 I. L. Idriess Great Boomerang x. 75 Red Bill and his gang lifted their cattle. They headed south-west and got safely across to the Paroo.
2001 Ledger (Lakeland, Florida) 11 Oct. b1 We catch the water, and it moves southwest underground or overground.
2. With reference to the wind: from the south-west.
ΚΠ
1578 G. Best True Disc. Passage to Cathaya ii. 37 The eleauenth of September about sixe a clocke at night the winde came good sowthwest, we were shot and set our course southest.
1602 T. Churchyard & R. Robinson tr. E. van Meteren True Disc. Hist. Succeeding Governours Netherlands 132 They had a verie good gale blowing full Southwest, which continued vntill three of the clocke the next morning.
1630 H. Hexham Hist. Relation Siege of Busse 25 It was good that the wind blew South West, for had the winde bin Northwest, and had blowne stiffe, as it did, it had not onely endangered the firing of all our blinds, but also our gallery.
a1731 D. Defoe New Voy. round World (1787) III. 124 The little wind that blew, being South West by South.
1797 J. Collier Hist. & Familiar Ess. Script. New Test. II. 197 Our vessel, by a contrary wind, sailed against Cyprus, and the wind blowing south-west, we left it on our left.
1849 W. Reid Progress of Devel. of Law of Storms & Variable Winds xiv. 375 Ships continuing to sail on in that quadrant of progressive whirlwind gales in which the wind blows south-west.
1885 G. Meredith Diana of Crossways III. xi. 202 February blew South-west for the pairing of the birds. A broad warm wind rolled clouds of every ambiguity of form in magnitude over peeping azure.
1907 F. H. Smith Veiled Lady (1912) 256 The anxiety due to the sudden shift of wind—it had been blowing south-west all day—had made him restless.
2002 D. A. Agius In Wake of Dhow ii. 26 The seamen embarked on their long journeys towards India before the monsoons blew south-west and made their homeward journey in winter with the northeast winds.
B. adj. Recorded earliest (in Old English) in compounds of the (uninflected) adverb stem; see etymological note.
1.
a. Situated in the south-west.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the earth > direction > cardinal points > South > South-west > [adjective]
south-westernOE
south-westlOE
southwesterly1587
south-western1651
southwestwardly1723
south-west1739
southwestward1793
lOE Rec. Acquisition of Land by Edward the Elder (Sawyer 1443) in S. Miller Charters of New Minster, Winchester (2001) 13 Ðonne from ðære suðwest hyrnan sancte Gregories cirican [c1425 fram the suthwest herne to seynt Gregoriis chirche] xii gerda westrichte to ðære strete.
c1440 Astron. Cal. (Ashm. 391) (MED) A sowþe weste moone and a norþe Est moone maken an high flode at london brigge.
1478 in P. E. Jones Cal. Plea & Mem. Rolls London Guildhall (1961) VI. 121 (MED) Atte thende of xlviij fote lyneright westwarde by the south side of the said Aley..lyneright southward unto the southwest Corner.
1540 in J. W. Clay Testamenta Eboracensia (1902) VI. 120 To be buried in the churche yerde..in the southe weste corner.
1573 T. Tusser Fiue Hundreth Points Good Husbandry (new ed.) f. 50 The Sunne south west, for hop yard best.
1644 W. Castell Short Discov. Coasts & Continent Amer. ii. 27 Timana in the most South-west part of the..Valley of Neyva..the Spanish as yet with much adoe hold.
1663 S. Butler Hudibras: First Pt. i. i. 6 He could..divide A hair 'twixt South and South-west side.
1728 E. Chambers Cycl. at Compass What has been said of North-East Amplitudes, holds also of South-West Amplitudes.
1797 Encycl. Brit. II. 624 The south-west side of the island.
1837 P. Keith Bot. Lexicon 14 The south-west and south-east coasts [of North America]..being..the more flat.
1886 R. L. Stevenson Kidnapped xiii. 114 The brig..was close hauled..to round the south-west corner..of Mull.
1939 WPA Guide to Florida (1984) i. 36 Along the southwest coast, burial mounds and heaps of shell, thrown up by the ancient Calusa to form dwelling platforms, are in mosquito- and snake-infested portions of the Ten Thousand Islands.
1969 Times 30 Jan. (Ethiopia Suppl.) p. iii/3 The south-west corner of Ethiopia is an area inhabited by Sudanese lowland fauna.
2008 Nature 6 Mar. 24/1 On 3 January 2005, a fisherman working 25 kilometres off the southwest coast of Florida noticed that the baitfish in his seawater tank were spinning and dying.
b. With proper names or their derivatives: denoting the south-western division of a region or its inhabitants.
ΚΠ
1648 B. Plantagenet Descr. New Albion ii. 15 His then Majesty, as Head, Lord and Emperour of the South-west America.
1650 E. Williams Virgo Triumphans 14 Our opposite shore of Southwest Virginia.
?1787 F. Swediauer Pract. Observ. Venereal Complaints (ed. 3) i. 10 So far down as to the middle of the sixteenth century, this disease was unknown altogether in South-west America.
1858 1st Rep. South-West London Protestant Inst. 3 Rules. 1. That this Society be called ‘The South-West London Protestant Institute’.
1899 Geogr. Jrnl. May 563 A notice of Dr. Rehbock's work on irrigation in German South-West Africa.
1946 Whitaker's Almanack 789 The Orange..is the principal river of the south,..flowing into the Atlantic between the Protectorate of South-West Africa and the Cape of Good Hope.
1950 H. Briercliffe Southern Eng. p. iii There is necessarily some overlapping with..South-west England and the Midlands.
1968 Ann. Reg. 1967 326 The South African Government remained completely unmoved by United Nations' efforts to plan the implementation of the 1966 General Assembly resolution that South West Africa be removed from South African control.
1980 Times 14 June 1/8 The Middle East, or south-west Asia as the Americans now call it.
2002 Sawubona (S. Afr. Airways In-flight Mag.) Sept. 65 My first port of call was Yangshuo, a charming little village in southwest China.
2. Of a wind: blowing from the south-west.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the earth > weather and the atmosphere > weather > wind > [adjective] > from specific point of compass
southeOE
northeOE
northerneOE
easternOE
southernOE
south-easternOE
north-easternOE
westernOE
south-westernOE
southena1325
north-east1379
east-north-easta1398
east-south-easta1398
north-north-easta1398
north-westa1398
south-southeasta1398
south-westc1400
south-easta1425
nor'-westa1500
south-southwesta1522
north-westera1525
northerlya1544
southerly1550
south-southeast?1560
south-easterly1577
north-north-west1601
subprincipal1601
southernly1610
north-westerly1611
easternly1614
northernly1632
westwardly1653
northwardly1654
north-easterly1686
southwardly1693
southwesterly1703
eastling1725
south-southeasterly1803
westland1818
south-southwesterly1822
north-western1829
north-north-easterly1831
southwesterly1883
nor-nor-east1891
c1400 (c1378) W. Langland Piers Plowman (Laud 581) (1869) B. v. l. 14 Þe southwest wynde..Was pertliche for pure pryde and for no poynt elles.
1483 Catholicon Anglicum (BL Add. 89074) (1881) 350/2 Þe Sowthe west wynde, fauonius, affricus.
1526 Bible (Tyndale) Acts xxvii. 12 Whych haven..servith to the soughwest and northwest wynde.
1598 A. M. tr. J. Guillemeau Frenche Chirurg. 51 b/1 A south-west wind, with warmishe showres of rayne.
1609 W. Shakespeare Pericles xv. 101 Is this wind Westerlie that blowes? Leon. Southwest . View more context for this quotation
1671 J. Baltharpe Straights Voy. iv. 86 We long to see you, may our Sails, Be always full of Southwest Gales.
1731 P. Miller Gardeners Dict. I. at Barometer A long continu'd Storm of South-west Wind.
1755 W. Huggins & T. H. Croker tr. L. Ariosto Orlando Furioso I. xviii. cxli. 291 A south-west gale at first to them seem'd kind, 'Till the sun it's meridian did attain.
1829 Chapters Physical Sci. 428 The great rains which deluge the whole of India during the south-west monsoon.
1896 A. Beardsley Let. c17 Sept. (1971) 165 Are you suffering with a south-west wind in London? It prevails here utterly and has given me the pip.
1910 Encycl. Brit. I. 956/1 Irregular rainfall, but usually dry during the north-east, and very wet during the south-west monsoon.
1968 L. Blanch Journey into Mind's Eye vi. xxv. 341 Hardly less furious is the Koultouk, or south-west wind, and the Bargouzine, which rages across the lake from east to west.
2001 J. Waterman Arctic Crossing ii. 208 We sail toward Agiak Headland in a muscled southwest wind blowing off the shore.
3. Directed towards or facing the south-west.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the earth > direction > cardinal points > South > South-west > [adjective]
south-westernOE
south-westlOE
southwesterly1587
south-western1651
southwestwardly1723
south-west1739
southwestward1793
1739 P. Miller Gardeners Dict. II. at Walls If the Pears which are designed to be planted, are allowed a South-west Aspect, on which they will ripen very well; then the Wall to this Aspect should be built fourteen Feet high or more.
1756 F. Home Exper. Bleaching 67 I exposed, in a south~west window, half an oz. of Castile soap.
1812 S. Edwards New Bot. Garden I. 61 A wall which had a south-west aspect.
1824 J. C. Loudon Green-house Compan. i. 11 A green-house with a west or even south-west aspect.
1878 S. Wood Bulb Garden 39 The best situation for the gladiolus is one with a south-west aspect.
1909 ‘O. Henry’ Roads of Destiny i. 22 Half an hour before twelve the Duke d'Aumale, with his own hands, set a red lamp in a southwest window of the palace.
1957 Jrnl. Ecol. 45 941 Thus debris occurs on level ground or on slopes with a west, north-west or, more rarely, south-west aspect.
2006 K. Mitchell in B. Edwards Courtyard Housing iv. xvi. 178/2 The primary visitor's entry occurs on the south-west façade and leads to the public areas of the house.
C. n.
1. The point of the horizon midway between south and west; (also) the direction of this; the compass point corresponding to this.
a. With definite article.
ΚΠ
lOE Anglo-Saxon Chron. (Laud) anno 1106 Se steorra ætywde innon þet suðwest.
a1387 J. Trevisa tr. R. Higden Polychron. (St. John's Cambr.) (1865) I. 173 Mesia..ioyneþ in þe..south west to Dalmatia.
1517 R. Torkington Oldest Diarie Englysshe Trav. (1884) 61 The wynde Rose in the Suth~weste.
1577 W. Harrison Hist. Descr. Islande Brit. i. ix. f. 21v/1, in R. Holinshed Chron. I Eryn riseth of sundry heddes and..peninsulateth..Selesey towne on the southwest.
1611 Bible (King James) Acts xxvii. 12 Phenice..lieth toward the Southwest . View more context for this quotation
1683 R. Dixon Canidia iv. iii. 14 Lo, a Gale Breathing from the South-west, out peeps A sullen Cloud and small, that creeps O're the whole surface of the Sky, And turns all to Obscurity.
1731 P. Miller Gardeners Dict. I. at Wind The Wind..is like to be in the South or South~west.
1789 J. Williams Nat. Hist. Mineral Kingdom I. 102 You advance..with your face towards the southwest.
1820 W. Chambers Life Bl. Dwarf (1885) 1 A gentle rising hill to the south-west, called Manor Swire.
1883 E. Pennell-Elmhirst Cream Leics. 398 The crimping, woolly effect of half a gale from the south-west.
1935 ‘A. Bridge’ Illyrian Spring iii. 33 The sun had set, and a fresh wind had sprung up from the south-west, ruffling the darkening water before them.
1966 H. Davies New London Spy (1967) 241 To the south-west lies Chelsea, the arty quarter of London.
2003 J. Kiely Heat not Furnace viii. 199 A mist swept in from the south west bringing a very lively cool of wind with it.
b. Without definite article.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the earth > direction > cardinal points > South > South-west > [noun]
south-westOE
south-westa1450
southwestward1532
south-westwards1578
a1450 (a1338) R. Mannyng Chron. (Lamb.) (1887) i. l. 6417 Toward south-west þey passed þe se.
1555 R. Eden Disc. Vyage rounde Worlde in tr. Peter Martyr of Angleria Decades of Newe Worlde f. 227v Directynge theyr course towarde Southewest, they came to an other Ilande.
1591 W. Raleigh Rep. Fight Iles of Açores sig. D3 They came into the height of 35. degrees,..where they found the winde at Southwest.
1639 E. Chilmead tr. R. Hues Learned Treat. Globes iv. iii. 176 Betwixt Southwest and by-west.
1671 J. Milton Paradise Regain'd iv. 234 Look once more e're we leave this specular Mount Westward, much nearer by Southwest, behold Where [etc.] . View more context for this quotation
1715 E. Barlow Meteorol. Ess. i. iv. 117 The South-East Trade-Wind,..veres about to South South-West, and by degrees to South-West and West South-West.
1777 G. White Let. 22 Nov. in Nat. Hist. Selborne (1789) 219 The wind at south-west, and the thermometer at 58'½.
1816 M. T. Weathrall Let. 24 Nov. in C. Biden Naval Discipline (1830) 245 We were, unfortunately, prevented getting near the island again, from a severe gale of wind at south-west, in which we carried away our foremast.
1866 C. Kingsley Hereward the Wake II. xix. 328 The vast forest which ringed London round from north-east to south-west.
1884 F. G. D. Bedford Sailor's Handbk. iii. 192 The current runs to the north-west with winds south of south-west.
1901 G. Meredith Hueless Love viii So has there come the gust at South-west flung By sudden volt on eves of freezing mist.
1921 U.S. Coast Pilot: Philippine Islands ii. 126 The land breezes..blow from sunset to morning and shift sometimes to southeast and east-southeast, but during collas the wind remains steady at southwest.
1963 D. M. Ludlum Early Amer. Hurricanes 103 Wind flow throughout much of central New England continued at southwest apparently unaffected by the great disturbance a few miles to the east.
1981 P. O'Brian Ionian Mission ix. 255 This is part of a poem about the Courageux, Captain Wilkinson, running plumb on to the Anholt reef by night, wind at south-west, double-reefed topsails and forecourse, making eight knots.
2. A wind blowing from the south-west. Now rare.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the earth > weather and the atmosphere > weather > wind > [noun] > wind with reference to direction > winds from specific compass points > south-west
south-west1440
Afer1667
Libs1742
southwester1778
sou'-wester1838
southwesterly1875
Promptorium Parvulorum (Harl. 221) 467 Sowthewest, favonius.
a1500 Eng. Glosses MS BL Add. 37075 (1984) 21 Zepherus, sowth west.
a1616 W. Shakespeare Tempest (1623) i. ii. 325 A Southwest blow on yee, And blister you all ore. View more context for this quotation
1725 W. Broome in A. Pope et al. tr. Homer Odyssey III. xii. 343 Should the fierce south-west..toss with rising storms the wat'ry way.
1767 C. Smart tr. Horace Odes i. i, in tr. Horace Wks. (new ed.) I. 5 The merchant, dreading the south-west, Whose blasts th'Icarian wave molest.
1859 Ld. Tennyson Enid in Idylls of King 95 As the south-west that blowing Bala lake Fills all the Sacred Dee.
1908 Pall Mall Mag. May 587 Through my leaves the south-west blows.
3.
a. The south-western part of a country or region.
ΚΠ
?a1475 (?a1425) tr. R. Higden Polychron. (Harl. 2261) (1865) I. 265 (MED) In the sowthe weste of Germayne be peple callede Scribonij..hauenge clothes of the ruȝhe skynnes of bestes.
a1622 H. Ainsworth Annot. Five Bks. Moses, Bk. Psalmes & Song of Songs (1627) 45/1 A City of the Philistines,..situate in the South-west of Canaan.
1649 W. Grey Chorographia 28 In the South West of the Town is the White-Fryers.
1722 W. Hamilton Life of Sir William Wallace viii. iv. 206 All the South-west of England I shall see.
1855 D. T. Ansted in Orr's Circle Sci.: Inorg. Nature 117 Represented by soft sands..in the south-west of France.
1889 J. Wrightson Fallow & Fodder Crops x. 228 Perennial rye-grass... Its older name of ray-grass is still preserved in many markets, notably in the south-west of England, where it is inquired for under the name of ‘green rays’.
1911 Encycl. Brit. XXI. 763/1 At much higher altitudes, in the south-west of the Mediterranean region, forests occur of the Atlantic cedar (Cedrus atlantica).
1958 H. G. Sanders Outl. Brit. Crop Husbandry (ed. 3) 190 Leaf stripe is very prevalent in oats grown in the south-west of Scotland, and is relatively scarce in Aberdeenshire.
1964 Globe & Mail (Toronto) 12 Dec. 8/7 A few point to the slow resurgence of moose, particularly in the southwest of the province.
2009 N.Y. Times (National ed.) 19 Apr. (Travel section) 5/1 Tannat grapes, originally from the southwest of France, were first planted in Uruguay in 1870 by a Basque immigrant.
b. Without of. The south-western part of a country or region; spec. (a) (U.S.) the south-western states characterized by large desert areas and a proximity to the Mexican border; (b) (British) the south-western area of England; the West Country.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the earth > named regions of earth > America > North America > [noun] > United States > western states > south-west
south-west1530
1530 Bible (Tyndale) Deut. xxxiii. 10 Nephali he shall haue abundance of pleasure and shalbe fylled with the blessinge of the Lorde and shall haue his possessions in the southwest.
1643 R. Williams Key into Lang. Amer. 90 The Great God Kautántouwits field in the Southwest from whence they hold came all their Corne and Beanes.
1692 ‘J. Curate’ Sc. Presbyterian Eloquence 8 I cannot here pass by what happen'd a few Years ago, in the Parish of Tindrum in the South-west.
1835 J. H. Otey in W. M. Green Mem. J. H. Otey (1885) 15 Connected with my journey to the South-West, was an ardent desire to forward..a projected plan of a Literary and Theological Seminary, to meet the wants of Episcopalians in Tennessee and Mississippi and Louisiana.
1837 T. Carlyle French Revol. II. v. iii. 298 Such is the combustion of Avignon and the South-West.
1897 Eng. Hist. Rev. Oct. 769 He draws a sharp distinction between the ‘nucleated’ villages of eastern and central England, and the ‘hamletted’ villages of the south-west.
1935 A. G. Macdonell Visit to Amer. ix. 142 It must have been from the Spanish south-west..that the first prospectors came..into Montana.
1972 B. Fuller West of Bight 133 Why, in the south-west, the term should be ‘falling’ and not ‘felling’ I cannot say, but so it is.
1976 ‘R. Macdonald’ Blue Hammer xv. 83 Mildred was the most beautiful woman in the South-west.
1993 Vintage Roadscene Sept.–Nov. 149/3 Goodall had now started to work out of Devon Concrete to all parts of the South West.
4. Short for South West Africa, a territory on the west coast of southern Africa, sharing borders with Angola, Zambia, Botswana, and South Africa. South West Africa was declared a League of Nations Mandate territory after the Second World War, under the supervision of South Africa. In 1968, after a lengthy dispute over its control, the territory was officially renamed Namibia, in 1990 finally gaining full independence from South Africa as the Republic of Namibia (see Namibian adj. and n.).
ΘΚΠ
the world > the earth > named regions of earth > Africa > [noun] > parts of South Africa
Transkei1852
Strandveld1875
lowveld1878
Middleveld1878
rand1890
reef1903
backveld1905
platteland1917
south-west1928
1911 Ann. S. Afr. Museum 8 xxi. 191 The Bush people of South-West Africa (German South-West) have one click more than the Hottentots.]
1928 tr. H. Vedder in C. Hahn Native Tribes S.W. Afr. 199 The mission in South-West has its greatest supporters in the descendants from these colonists to this day.
1968 E. J. Kahn Separated People viii. 168 South West is uncommonly desolate. Forty per cent of it is desert.
1976 J. McClure Rogue Eagle i. 22 Ma..said she'd write to her family in South West, but he said that was just another Bantustan these days.
1978 S. Naipaul North of South ii. vi. 245 Abraham had been in Namibia (‘South-West’)... It was in South-West..that he and Tessa had met.
2008 Cape Times (Nexis) 4 Mar. 8 Now the Wild West of South-West (as we then knew Namibia) has popped up just south of Somerset West where principals, not pupils, get sent to detention.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2011; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
<
adv.adj.n.OE