southland

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English south-lond,^[1][2] inherited from Old English sūþland (“land lying to the south”),^[3][4][1][5] formed from sūþ (“south”) and land (“land”).^[4][6] It thus combines south and land.^[6][1] The OED compares Middle High German sūdenlant, modern German Südland and Old Norse suðrland, as well as northland.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Land or lands lying to the south: in Old English, in the Hexateuch's version of Genesis 24:62, where Isaac lived on ðám súðlandum, rendering Latin in terra australi.^[6][3] The Old English word was also used of the south bank of a river.^[3]

Semantic evolution

By about 1200 the word was used for the southern part of Britain,^[1][2] as in Laȝamon's account of the land called Locres.^[3] The adjective, belonging to or coming from the south, is recorded from 1488, in Hary's Wallace,^[6] and it stayed in Scots use: the English Dialect Dictionary records southland winds and air in 19th-century Scottish verse, and in the north of Scotland a southland was a person from the south.^[7] In American use the word was applied by 1849 to the Southern states,^[1] and Merriam-Webster Unabridged notes that it is often capitalized and can mean the Deep South.^[4] It is also the name of regions in California and New Zealand.^[6]

Timeline

• Old English – land lying to the south.^[6][3]
• c. 1200 – the southern part of Britain.^[1][2]
• 1488 – adjective, of or from the south.^[6]
• 1849 – the Southern states of the United States.^[1]

Meanings

Noun

1. Land in the south; the southern part of a country or region.^[4][8][6]
2. Often capitalized: the southern United States, the Deep South.^[4][1]

Adjective

1. Of, from or belonging to the south; southern; now chiefly Scottish.^[6][7]

Word family

• southlander

Related words

• south
• land
• northland

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
2. ^ a b c Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
4. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)
8. ^ Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins