Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Situated in, toward, or facing the south.
  • adjective Coming from the south.
  • adjective Native to or growing in the south.
  • adjective Of, relating to, or characteristic of southern regions or the South.
  • adjective Being south of the equator.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Of or pertaining to the south, or a region, place, or point which is nearer the south than some other region, place, or point indicated; situated in the south; specifically, in the United States, belonging to those States or that part of the Union called the South (see south, n., 3). Abbreviated S.
  • Directed or leading toward the south or a point near it: as, to steer a southern course.
  • Coming from the south; southerly: as, a southern breeze.
  • noun A native or an inhabitant of the south, of a southern country, or of the southern part of a country. Compare southron.
  • Same as south, 1, or souther.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun rare A Southerner.
  • adjective Of or pertaining to the south; situated in, or proceeding from, the south; situated or proceeding toward the south.
  • adjective (Astron.) a constellation of the southern hemisphere containing several bright stars so related in position as to resemble a cross.
  • adjective (Astron.) a constelation of the southern hemisphere (Piscis Australis) containing the bright star Fomalhaut.
  • adjective (U.S. Hist. & Geog.) the States of the American Union lying south of Pennsylvania and the Ohio River, with Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas. Before the Civil War, Missouri also, being a slave State, was classed as one of the Southern States.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Of, facing, situated in, or related to the south.
  • adjective Of or pertaining to a southern region, especially Southern Europe or the southern United States.
  • adjective Of a wind: blowing from the south; southerly.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective situated in or oriented toward the south
  • adjective from the south; used especially of wind
  • adjective situated in or coming from regions of the south
  • adjective in or characteristic of a region of the United States south of (approximately) the Mason-Dixon line

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English southerne, from Old English sūtherne; see sāwel- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English southerne, sothern, sutherne, from Old English sūþerne ("southern, southerly, coming from the south; of southern make"), from Proto-Germanic *sunþra (“southwards”), from Proto-Indo-European *sun-, *swen- (“sun”). Cognate with Scots southron, sudron ("southern"), Old Frisian sūthern, sūdern ("southern"), Middle Low German sūdern ("southern"), Middle High German sundern ("southern"), Icelandic súðrænn ("southern, tropical"). More at south.

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