South
is one of the cardinal directions and is opposite to the north.
By Western convention, the bottom side of a map is south; the southern direction has azimuth or bearing of 180°.
True south is the direction towards the southern end of the axis about which the earth rotates, called the South Pole and located in Antarctica. Magnetic south is the direction towards the south magnetic pole, some distance away from the south geographic pole.
|
SOUTH TICKETS
|
Etymology
The
etymology of "south" comes the
Old English word
suth
, related to the
Old High German word
sund
, and perhaps
sunne
in
Old English, with the sense of "the region of the
sun" (sun culminates in the south in the northern hemisphere).
"
The South" usually refers to "regions or countries lying to the south of a specified or implied point of orientation, especially the southeastern part of the United States"
[1], i. e. the
Southern United States
and mainly the
Deep South
, in a general historical context.
The South
is also used for "the developing nations of the world",
i. e. the
third world: see
North-South divide.
Other languages have sometimes more interesting derivations. For example, in
Rutul jennet
can mean both 'paradise' and 'south', because of the tribe's belief that paradise is located in the south of the Rutuls' lands. In many languages of
Mesoamerica, 'south' means also 'down'.
References
- ''Merriam-Webster Dictionary'': http://www.m-w.com