western

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /ˈwes.tən/, US /ˈwes.tɚn/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English westerne,^[2][3] inherited from Old English westerne (“western, westerly, coming from the west”),^[4][2] formed from west and the suffix -erne, which denotes direction.^[4][3] It is akin to Old High German westrōni and Old Norse vestrœnn.^[3] The root is that of west, from Proto-Indo-European *wes-pero- (“evening, west”).^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

Of the wind, “coming from the west”: about 1050,^[5] late Old English.^[4]

Semantic evolution

“Dwelling in the west”, of people in the west of England or Scotland, is from about 1100.^[5] By the late 14th century it meant “in or coming from the west” generally.^[4] The Western Ocean was the Atlantic.^[5] The noun, a book or film about the American Old West, is attested by 1909.^[4] Westerner was an inhabitant of the American West from 1837, and by 1880 a European or person of European descent, as opposed to an Asian.^[4] Western man, humanity shaped by the culture of western Europe, is by 1909,^[4] and the Western omelet by 1922.^[4] An obsolete Old English western, “desert, wilderness”, from about 950, is a different word.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 1050 – coming from the west.^[5]
• c. 1100 – dwelling in the west.^[5]
• late 14th century – in the west.^[4]
• 1837 – westerner, an inhabitant of the US West.^[4]
• 1909 – a western film or book.^[4]

Modern meaning

Adjective

1. In, toward or facing the west.
2. Coming from the west: a western wind.
3. Of or typical of the countries of Europe and North America; of the West.
4. Of the Christian churches that use or once used the Latin rite.

Noun

1. A novel or film about life on the American frontier.

Word family

• westernness
• westernmost
• nonwestern
• northwestern
• southwestern
• unwestern
• westernism
• westernization

Related words

• west
• westerly
• westward
• westerner
• vesper
• Hesperus
• eastern
• northern
• southern

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
3. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e f Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press