southward

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English southward, also southewarde and early suðward,^[2] inherited from Old English sūþweard,^[3][2][4][5] formed from Old English sūþ + -weard.^[4][6][7] The OED compares Old Frisian sūthwird, Middle Dutch suutwert, Middle Low German sǖtwārt and Old High German sundarwert.^[7] Old English also had the adjective sūþeweard, the source of the Middle English adjective.^[2] South is from Proto-Germanic *sunþaz, perhaps literally "sun-side".^[3] The form southwards also goes back to Old English.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Towards the south, of motion or direction: in the early Old English translation of Orosius,^[7][5] which the 1989 edition of the OED dated about 893.^[8] One Orosius passage has the Euphrates flowing súþweard.^[5] Merriam-Webster dates the word to before the 12th century,^[4] and Dictionary.com to before 900.^[9]

Semantic evolution

Already in Old English the word was used both of direction and of position, and as an adjective, situated or facing towards the south.^[7][5] In Middle English it was used of the southern parts of Britain and of the southern sky, and Chaucer's Treatise on the Astrolabe uses the adjective.^[2] The noun, the southern direction or part, is found without the article in Old English and with the from before 1350;^[7] the 1989 edition of the OED had dated the noun only to 1555.^[8] Johnson (1755) defined the adverb simply as "towards the south", with quotations from Raleigh and Locke.^[10] In sailors' speech it is pronounced like southard, a spelling the Shorter Oxford records as nautical and colloquial.^[11][7]

Timeline

• c. 893 – adverb, towards the south.^[8][7]
• Old English – adjective, lying or facing towards the south.^[7]
• before 1350 – noun, the southward, the southern direction or part.^[7]
• 1390 – adverb, of relative position, to the south.^[8]
• 1630 – southward of, to the south of.^[8]
• 1853 – in compounds such as southward-facing.^[8]

Meanings

Adverb

1. Towards the south: The geese flew southward over the marsh.^[4][12][7]
2. In or to the south of a place: The village lies a mile southward of the river.^[7][11]

Adjective

1. Lying, facing, directed or moving towards the south: a southward slope.^[12][7][4]

Noun

1. The southern direction, part or region: The ship bore away to the southward.^[4][12][13]

Word family

• southwardly
• southwards

Related words

• south
• -ward
• northward
• toward

Usage notes

As well as /ˈsaʊθwəd/, a nautical pronunciation /ˈsʌðəd/ is recorded,^[7][12] sometimes spelled southard.^[11]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d 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 Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c d Bosworth, Joseph; Toller, T. Northcote (1898), An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press; Toller, T. Northcote (1921), Supplement
6. ^ Gove, Philip Babcock, ed. (1961), Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d e f Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
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 c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
13. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin