oeste

Forms

oeste m (uncountable)^[1] Older forms ueste and hueste appear in documents from the Americas from 1548 on.^[2] Moliner still lists ueste as a synonym.^[3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French ouest (“west”), which goes back through ouest or west to Old English west.^[4][1] Corominas also derives it from the Old English word and considers the French route probable, not certain.^[5] The French word was first written ⟨west⟩ (1140) and then ⟨ouest⟩ (1379); like the other French names of the cardinal points it is of Old English origin.^[6] The vowel of French est shows that these names came from English rather than from Dutch or Norse.^[1]

The Old English word is *westą in Germanic,^[7] and belongs to an Indo-European root also found in Ancient Greek ἕσπερος (hésperos) and Latin vesper (“evening”).^[8][6] The root meant “evening”, so the word came to name the direction in which the sun sets.^[9] Spanish víspera and vespertino come from the Latin word.^[8]

The Academy's dictionary of 1884 derived the word from German West, and Moliner still does;^{[10][3][11][12]} Echegaray and Barcia had said the same.^{[10][3][11][12]} The Academy has given the French and Old English etymology since its 2001 edition at the latest.^[13][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

The prose of Alfonso X has the word for “west” in the first part of the General Estoria (1272–1275).^[14][15] The BDELC dates it only to 1567, with an earlier form in 1492.^[5] El Victorial (1431–1449, in a copy of about 1500) uses it at sea: the ships sailed all day la vía del oeste “towards the west”.^[16]

Semantic evolution

The Diccionario de Autoridades gave the wind from the west as the first sense, one of the four cardinal winds, and the point of the horizon where the sun sets at the equinox as the second, quoting Ercilla's Araucana: baña la del Oeste la marina.^[17] The Academy kept that order until 1884, when occidente became the first sense and the wind the second.^[18][10]

Today the noun names the cardinal point (symbol O or W), the western part of a country or area, a place west of another, and the west wind; after a noun it marks direction or origin, as in costa oeste.^[4] El lejano Oeste is the American West of the 19th-century expansion of the United States, and del Oeste describes a western, a film or novel set there.^[4][8]

Timeline

• 1272–1275 – Alfonso X's General Estoria uses oeste for “west”.^[14]
• 1431–1449 – El Victorial has la vía del oeste in a passage about sailing.^[16]
• 1548 – the form hueste is recorded in Lima.^[2]
• 1567 – the BDELC's date of first record.^[5]
• 1726–1739 – Autoridades defines it as the west wind and the point where the sun sets.^[17]
• 1884 – the Academy derives it from German west.^[10]
• 2001 – the Academy gives French ouest and Old English west as its source.^[13]

Meanings

Noun

1. west: the cardinal point of the horizon where the sun sets at the equinoxes; symbol O or W.^[4][1]
2. The western part of a country or region: Viven en el oeste de Bolivia.^[4][9]
3. A place that lies to the west of another: Portugal queda al oeste de Madrid.^[4]
4. (in apposition) Facing or coming from the west: la fachada oeste.^[4]
5. A wind from the west.^[4][3]
6. (usually capitalised) The American West: el lejano Oeste, una película del Oeste “a western”.^[4][9]

Related words

• este
• occidente
• poniente
• French ouest
• English west

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. lueste
3. ^ a b c d Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. oeste
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. oeste
5. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. oeste
6. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. ouest
7. ^ Wikcionario (Spanish Wiktionary), es.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. oeste
8. ^ a b c Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. oeste
9. ^ a b c Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. oeste
10. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 754
11. ^ a b Echegaray, Eduardo de (1887–1889), Diccionario general etimológico de la lengua española, 5 vols., Madrid: José María Faquineto, p. 557
12. ^ a b Barcia, Roque (1880–1883), Primer diccionario general etimológico de la lengua española, 5 vols., Madrid: Establecimiento Tipográfico de Álvarez Hermanos, p. 1008
13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. oeste
14. ^ a b Kasten, Lloyd A.; Nitti, John J.; Gago Jover, Francisco (2002–), Diccionario de la prosa castellana del Rey Alfonso X, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (electronic edition 2024), p. s.v. oeste
15. ^ Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (2026), Old Spanish Textual Archive (OSTA): semi-paleographic transcriptions of Old Spanish texts, ed. Francisco Gago Jover et al., https://www.hispanicseminary.org, p. s.v. oeste
16. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. oeste
17. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5, 19
18. ^ Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 548