sur

Forms

sur m (plural sures)^[1]

Etymology

It is probably borrowed from Old French su (“south”), the older form of sud, which is from Old English sūþ (“south, southward”).^[2][3][4] The DLE and Wiktionary take it from modern French, from the same Old English word.^[5][1] Corominas explains the final ⟨r⟩ by the influence of the old compound surouest (“southwest”) (today sud-ouest), whose ⟨r⟩ came in turn from norouest (“northwest”).^[2][3]

French has the word as suth from about 1138 and as sud from about 1170.^[6] Wiktionary notes that the vowel of est (“east”) shows that the French names of the compass points came from English rather than from Dutch or Norse.^[1]

The Old English word goes back to Proto-Germanic *sunþaz (“southward”), which Köbler compares with the Indo-European word for the sun, Proto-Indo-European *sun-.^[7] Bénaben and the DHLF report the usual explanation: the south is the side of the sun.^[3][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first hits for Sur in the CDH, from about 1200, are place names, not the compass point: the desert de Sur of the Fazienda de Ultra Mar and a city called Sur in Alfonso X's General Estoria.^[8] Corominas dates the word to 1492.^[2] The first records from the Americas are in compass directions: a coast running norte sur in Nicaragua in 1527, and in Mexico in 1532 a voyage that turned hacia el Sur “towards the south”.^[9]

Semantic evolution

Wikcionario says that the borrowing pushed out the inherited ostro and austro, from Latin auster.^[10] Autoridades still lists Austro beside Sur among the winds, and defines sur only as the wind from the south, one of the four chief winds of the compass rose used on the ocean.^[11] In 1550 a Chilean text already uses the plural sures for southerly winds.^[9] Terreros treats sur as the same word as sud.^[12]

The Academy's 1817 dictionary added the sense “the south, the part of the world opposite the north”, and its 1884 edition defined it as a cardinal point opposite the north and gave the etymology “De sud”.^[13][14] Today the word also names the southern part of a country and is used in apposition, as in viento sur and costa sur.^[5][15] In Bolivia sur is a cold, damp wind from the south.^[16] In the Canaries it is the dry leeward side of each island.^[17]

Timeline

• c. 1200 – Sur as a place name in the Fazienda de Ultra Mar (in a 13th-century copy).^[8]
• 1492 – first record of the compass point, according to Corominas.^[2]
• c. 1495 – the compounds sueste and sudueste, the older forms of sudeste and sudoeste.^[2]
• 1498 – first record in DICCA-XV.^[18]
• 1527 – first record in the Americas, in Nicaragua.^[9]
• 1726–1739 – Autoridades defines sur as the south wind.^[11]
• 1817 – the Academy adds the sense “the south”.^[13]
• 1843 – first record of the forms sudeste and sudoeste.^[2]
• 1884 – the Academy's dictionary gives the etymology De sud.^[14]

Meanings

Noun

1. south: the cardinal point behind an observer who has the east on the right: Las ventanas de la casa dan al sur.^[5][1]
2. The southern part of a country or area: Pasó la infancia en el sur de Chile.^[5][15]
3. A place that lies to the south of another.^[5]
4. (in apposition) Facing south or coming from the south: la fachada sur.^[5]
5. A south wind.^[5][11]
6. (Bolivia) A cold, damp wind from the south that lowers the temperature.^[16]
7. (Canary Islands) The dry, leeward side of each island.^[17]

Word family

• sureño
• sureste
• suroeste
• surero

Related words

• French sud
• English south

Usage notes

Set phrases include polo sur and Cono Sur.^[5] Malaret records a separate ¡sur! of Puerto Rico, an interjection of encouragement like ¡sus!.^[19]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. sur
3. ^ a b c Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. sur
4. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. sur
5. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. sur
6. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
7. ^ Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Germanisches Wörterbuch, 5th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
8. ^ 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. sur
9. ^ a b c 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. sud
10. ^ Wikcionario (Spanish Wiktionary), es.wiktionary.org, p. s.v. sur
11. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 6, 190
12. ^ Terreros y Pando, Esteban de (1786–1793), Diccionario castellano con las voces de ciencias y artes y sus correspondientes de las tres lenguas francesa, latina e italiana, 4 vols., Madrid: Viuda de Ibarra, p. 3, 558
13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1817), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 5th ed., Madrid: Imprenta Real, p. 821
14. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 998
15. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. sur
16. ^ a b Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. sur
17. ^ a b Academia Canaria de la Lengua (2010), Diccionario básico de canarismos, Santa Cruz de Tenerife; online at https://www.academiacanarialengua.org, p. s.v. sur
18. ^ Lleal, Coloma (dir.), DICCA-XV: Diccionario del castellano del siglo XV en la Corona de Aragón, Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona, Grup d'Estudis d'Història de la Llengua (GHCL), https://ghcl.ub.edu/diccaxv, p. s.v. sur
19. ^ Malaret, Augusto (1946), Diccionario de americanismos, 3rd ed., Buenos Aires: Emecé, p. 750