North

Lore & Background

The word north is related to the Old High German nord, both descending from the Proto-Indo-European unit *ner-, meaning 'left; below' as north is to left when facing the rising sun. Similarly, the other cardinal directions are also related to the sun's position. The Latin word borealis comes from the Greek boreas 'north wind, north' which, according to Ovid, was personified as the wind-god Boreas, the father of Calais and Zetes. Septentrionalis is from septentriones, 'the seven plow oxen', a name of Ursa Major. The Greek ἀρκτικός (arktikós) is named for the same constellation, and is the source of the English word Arctic. Other languages have other derivations. For example, in Lezgian, kefer can mean both 'disbelief' and 'north', since to the north of the Muslim Lezgian homeland there are areas formerly inhabited by non-Muslim Caucasian and Turkic peoples. In many languages of Mesoamerica, north also means 'up'. In Romanian the old word for north is mĭazănoapte, from Latin mediam noctem meaning midnight and in Hungarian is észak, which is derived from éjszaka ('night'), since between the Tropic of Cancer and the Arctic Circle the Sun never shines from the north. By convention, the top or upward-facing side of a map is north. Traveling directly north traces a meridian line upwards. North is specifically the direction that, in Western culture, is considered the fundamental direction: north is used (explicitly or implicitly) to define all other directions.

Reader's Guide

North's significance extends beyond simple navigation. As the prime direction in Western culture, it defines all other directions and is conventionally placed at the top of maps, a practice established by the Greek astronomer Ptolemy. The historian Daniel Boorstin suggests this may be because the better-known places in his world were in the northern hemisphere, and on a flat map these were most convenient for study if they were in the upper right-hand corner. The visible rotation of the night sky around the visible celestial pole provides a vivid metaphor of that direction corresponding to 'up', though Chinese and Islamic cultures considered south as the proper 'top' end for maps. Magnetic north differs from true north by an angle called magnetic declination. Maps intended for orienteering by compass clearly indicate the local declination for easy correction to true north. On any rotating astronomical object, north often denotes the side appearing to rotate counterclockwise when viewed from afar along the axis of rotation, though the International Astronomical Union defines the geographic north pole of a planet or any of its satellites in the Solar System as the planetary pole that is in the same celestial hemisphere, relative to the invariable plane of the Solar System, as Earth's north pole. North is quite often associated with colder climates because most of the world's populated land at high latitudes is located in the Northern Hemisphere.

Did You Know?

• The word north derives from the Proto-Indo-European *ner-, meaning 'left; below', as north is to the left when facing the rising sun.
• In many languages of Mesoamerica, north also means 'up'.
• The difference between magnetic north and true north is called magnetic declination.
• The Greek word ἀρκτικός (arktikós), source of 'Arctic', is named for the constellation Ursa Major.