West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or
points of the compass
The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each sep ...
. It is the opposite direction from
east and is the direction in which the
Sun sets on the Earth.
Etymology
The word "west" is a
Germanic word passed into some
Romance languages (''ouest'' in French, ''oest'' in Catalan, ''ovest'' in Italian, ''oeste'' in Spanish and Portuguese). As in other languages, the word formation stems from the fact that west is the direction of the setting sun in the evening: 'west' derives from the Indo-European root ''*wes'' reduced from ''*wes-pero'' 'evening, night', cognate with Ancient Greek ἕσπερος
hesperos
In Greek mythology, Hesperus (; grc, Ἕσπερος, Hésperos) is the Evening Star, the planet Venus in the evening. He is one of the ''Astra Planeta''. A son of the dawn goddess Eos (Roman Aurora), he is the half-brother of her other son, Pho ...
'evening; evening star; western' and Latin vesper 'evening; west'. Examples of the same formation in other languages include Latin
occidens 'west' from occidō 'to go down, to set' and Hebrew מַעֲרָב maarav 'west' from עֶרֶב erev 'evening'.
Navigation
To go west using a compass for
navigation (in a place where magnetic north is the same direction as true north) one needs to set a
bearing or
azimuth
An azimuth (; from ar, اَلسُّمُوت, as-sumūt, the directions) is an angular measurement in a spherical coordinate system. More specifically, it is the horizontal angle from a cardinal direction, most commonly north.
Mathematicall ...
of 270°.
West is the direction opposite that of the
Earth's rotation on its axis, and is therefore the general direction towards which the
Sun
The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is a nearly perfect ball of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core. The Sun radiates this energy mainly as light, ultraviolet, and infrared radi ...
appears to constantly progress and eventually set. This is not true on the planet
Venus, which rotates in the opposite direction from the Earth (
retrograde rotation
Retrograde motion in astronomy is, in general, orbital or rotational motion of an object in the direction opposite the rotation of its primary, that is, the central object (right figure). It may also describe other motions such as precession or ...
). To an observer on the surface of Venus, the Sun would rise in
the west
West is a cardinal direction or compass point.
West or The West may also refer to:
Geography and locations
Global context
* The Western world
* Western culture and Western civilization in general
* The Western Bloc, countries allied with NAT ...
and set in the east
although Venus's opaque clouds prevent observing the Sun from the planet's surface.
In a map with north at the top, west is on the left.
Moving continuously west is following a
circle of latitude
A circle of latitude or line of latitude on Earth is an abstract east– west small circle connecting all locations around Earth (ignoring elevation) at a given latitude coordinate line.
Circles of latitude are often called parallels becau ...
.
Weather
Due to the direction of the Earth's rotation, the prevailing wind in many places in the
middle latitudes (i.e. between 35 and 65 degrees
latitude
In geography, latitude is a coordinate that specifies the north–south position of a point on the surface of the Earth or another celestial body. Latitude is given as an angle that ranges from –90° at the south pole to 90° at the north pole ...
) is from the west, known as the
westerlies.
Cultural
The phrase "the West" is often spoken in reference to the
Western world, which includes the
European Union (also the
EFTA countries), the Americas, Israel, Australia, New Zealand and (in part) South Africa.
The concept of the Western part of the earth has its roots in the
Western Roman Empire and the
Western Christianity. During the
Cold War "the West" was often used to refer to the
NATO camp as opposed to the
Warsaw Pact and
non-aligned nations. The expression survives, with an increasingly ambiguous meaning.
Symbolic meanings
In Chinese
Buddhism
Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and gra ...
, the West represents movement toward the
Buddha
Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha, was a wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism.
According to Buddhist tradition, he was born in Lu ...
or enlightenment (see
Journey to the West). The ancient
Aztec
The Aztecs () were a Mesoamerican culture that flourished in central Mexico in the post-classic period from 1300 to 1521. The Aztec people included different ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those groups who spoke the Nahuatl ...
s believed that the West was the realm of the great goddess of
water, mist, and
maize. In
Ancient Egypt, the West was considered to be the portal to the
netherworld
Netherworld (''nether'', ″beneath, lower″) may refer to:
*Underworld, a region thought to be beneath the surface of the world in many religions and mythologies
Film and television
* ''Netherworld'' (film), a 1992 American horror film
*''Nethe ...
, and is the cardinal direction regarded in connection with
death, though not always with a negative connotation. Ancient Egyptians also believed that the
Goddess Amunet
Amunet () or Imnt (''The Hidden One'' in hieroglyphics); also spelled Amonet or Amaunet; grc-koi, Αμαυνι) is a primordial goddess in ancient Egyptian religion.Wilkinson (2003), pp. 136–137.Hart (1986), p. 2. Thebes was the center of her w ...
was a personification of the West.
[ Campbell, Joseph. ''The Mythic Image.'' Princeton University Press, 1981.] The
Celt
The Celts (, see pronunciation for different usages) or Celtic peoples () are. "CELTS location: Greater Europe time period: Second millennium B.C.E. to present ancestry: Celtic a collection of Indo-European peoples. "The Celts, an ancient ...
s believed that beyond the western sea off the edges of all maps lay the
Otherworld, or Afterlife.
In
Judaism, west is seen to be toward the
Shekinah
Shekhinah, also spelled Shechinah ( Hebrew: שְׁכִינָה ''Šəḵīnā'', Tiberian: ''Šăḵīnā'') is the English transliteration of a Hebrew word meaning "dwelling" or "settling" and denotes the presence of God, as it were, in a plac ...
(presence) of God, as in Jewish history the
Tabernacle and subsequent
Jerusalem Temple
The Temple in Jerusalem, or alternatively the Holy Temple (; , ), refers to the two now-destroyed religious structures that served as the central places of worship for Israelites and Jews on the modern-day Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusa ...
faced east, with God's Presence in the
Holy of Holies up the steps to the west. According to the
Bible, the
Israelites crossed the
Jordan River
The Jordan River or River Jordan ( ar, نَهْر الْأُرْدُنّ, ''Nahr al-ʾUrdunn'', he, נְהַר הַיַּרְדֵּן, ''Nəhar hayYardēn''; syc, ܢܗܪܐ ܕܝܘܪܕܢܢ ''Nahrāʾ Yurdnan''), also known as ''Nahr Al-Shariea ...
westward into the
Promised Land
The Promised Land ( he, הארץ המובטחת, translit.: ''ha'aretz hamuvtakhat''; ar, أرض الميعاد, translit.: ''ard al-mi'ad; also known as "The Land of Milk and Honey"'') is the land which, according to the Tanakh (the Hebrew ...
. In
Islam, while in India, people pray facing towards the west as in respect to
Mecca,
Mecca is in the West-ward direction.
In
American literature
American literature is literature written or produced in the United States of America and in the colonies that preceded it. The American literary tradition thus is part of the broader tradition of English-language literature, but also in ...
(e.g., in ''
The Great Gatsby'') moving West has sometimes symbolized gaining
freedom
Freedom is understood as either having the ability to act or change without constraint or to possess the power and resources to fulfill one's purposes unhindered. Freedom is often associated with liberty and autonomy in the sense of "giving on ...
, perhaps as an association with the settling of the
Wild West
The American frontier, also known as the Old West or the Wild West, encompasses the geography, history, folklore, and culture associated with the forward wave of American expansion in mainland North America that began with European colonial ...
(see also the
American frontier
The American frontier, also known as the Old West or the Wild West, encompasses the geography, history, folklore, and culture associated with the forward wave of American expansion in mainland North America that began with European colonial ...
and
Manifest Destiny).
Fantasy fiction
Tolkien used it symbolically, with the dying Thorin calling
Bilbo Baggins
Bilbo Baggins is the title character and protagonist of J. R. R. Tolkien's 1937 novel ''The Hobbit'', a supporting character in ''The Lord of the Rings'', and the fictional narrator (along with Frodo Baggins) of many of Tolkien's Middle-earth ...
"child of the kindly West" in ''
The Hobbit''. This is much more definite in ''
The Lord of the Rings'', where the east served
Sauron and his enemies associate themselves with the West.
In Saberhagen's
Empire of the East series
The Empire of the East series is composed of four science fiction/fantasy novels by Fred Saberhagen.
Premise
Some time in the future, a nuclear holocaust is averted by a computer named ARDNEH (Automatic Restoration Director – National Executi ...
, the rival powers are West and East, including both humans and supernatural beings. All demons are part of the East.
This is not universal. In Tolkien's earlier work, the north had been the direction of evil. C S Lewis in
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
''The Voyage of the Dawn Treader'' is a high fantasy novel for children by C. S. Lewis, published by Geoffrey Bles in 1952. It was the third published of seven novels in ''The Chronicles of Narnia'' (1950–1956). Macmillan US published an ...
has the east as the sacred direction, leading to Aslan's country
References
External links
*
{{CandODirections
Orientation (geometry)