occidental

Etymology

It is borrowed from Middle French occidental^[2][3][4][5] and directly borrowed from Latin occidentālis (“western, westerly”).^{[2][5][6][7][8]} Anglo-Norman had occidental as an adjective, of the west, and as a noun, a person from the west, from about 1230.^[9] The Latin adjective is formed from occidēns (“the west, the region where the sun sets”) and -ālis;^[2][7] occidēns is the present participle of occidō (“to fall, go down, set”), from ob- and cadō (“to fall”).^[2][5] In post-classical Latin occidentālis was also a noun, an inhabitant of the west, from the 4th century.^[2] The word is the counterpart of oriental in all its uses, but much less common.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of, in, or towards the part of the sky where the sun sets; western, and in astronomy and astrology of a planet seen after sunset: about 1400, in a manuscript of Chaucer's Treatise on the Astrolabe (1391).^[2][5] Dictionary.com dates the word to 1350–1400.^[7]

Semantic evolution

From the sky the word passed to the earth: from before 1538, in Adam Abell's Roit or Quheill of Tyme, it meant belonging to the western countries, and the same text has the noun, a native of the West.^[2] Etymonline dates this sense, opposed to oriental and meaning above all Western Europe and its offshoots, to the 1550s.^[5] Johnson (1755) defined it simply as "western", quoting Shakespeare.^[10] The noun Occidental, a Western person, was still felt as a coinage in 1823, when a writer in The Bee complained that English lacked an opposite to Orientals;^[5] Merriam-Webster dates it to 1857.^[11] Jewellers used occidental from 1747 for a gem of lesser value and brilliance, as opposed to an oriental one.^[2][3] From 1926 Occidental was also the name of an artificial language based on the Romance languages, devised in 1922 by E. J. de Wahl.^[2] Collins now calls the adjective a literary or formal word for western.^[12]

Timeline

• c. 1400 – of or in the western part of the sky; of a planet, seen after sunset.^[2][5]
• before 1538 – of or characteristic of the West or western countries; noun, a native of the West.^[2]
• 1587 – noun, a western country (obsolete).^[2]
• 1747 – of a gem, inferior in value and brilliance.^[2]
• 1823 – Occidental, a Western person, presented as a new noun.^[5]
• 1926 – Occidental, an artificial language.^[2]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Of, relating to, or situated in the Occident; western: occidental traditions of painting.^[6][12][2]
2. Of or characteristic of the peoples of the West.^[6][11]
3. Of or in the western part of the sky; in astrology, of a planet seen after sunset.^[2][3]
4. Of a gem, of lower value and brilliance.^[2][3]

Noun

1. An inhabitant or native of the West, especially a person of European ancestry; usually Occidental.^[6][12][2]

Word family

• occidentally
• occidentality
• nonoccidental
• occidentalize
• unoccidental
• occidentalism

Related words

• occident
• oriental
• occasion
• cadence
• accident

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
7. ^ a b c Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
8. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
9. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
10. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
11. ^ a b Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
12. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins