North

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For other uses, see North (disambiguation).

A 16-point compass rose with north highlighted and at top.

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North is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography. North is one of the
four cardinal directions or compass points. It is the opposite of south and
is perpendicular to east and west.
Contents
[hide]

1 Etymology
2 Mapping
3 Magnetic north and declination
4 Roles of north as prime direction
5 Roles of east and west as inherently subsidiary directions
6 Cultural references
7 See also
8 References
9 External links

Etymology[edit]
The word north is related to the Old High German nord, both descending from the Proto-IndoEuropean unit ner-, meaning "down" (or "under"). (Presumably[according to whom?] a natural primitive
description of its concept is "to the left of the rising sun".)
The Latin word borealis comes from the Greek boreas "north wind, north", which, according to Ovid,
was personified as the son of the river-god Strymon, the father of Calais and Zetes.Septentrionalis is

from septentriones, "the seven plow oxen", a name of Ursa Maior. The Greek arktikos is named for
the same constellation, and is the derivation of the English word "Arctic".
Other languages have sometimes more interesting 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 Hungarian the word for north is szak, which is derived
from jszaka ("night"), since in the Northern Hemisphere the Sun never shines from the north.

Mapping[edit]
By convention, the top side of a map is often north.
To go north using a compass for navigation, set a bearing or azimuth of 0 or 360.
North is specifically the direction that, in Western culture, is treated as the fundamental direction:

North is used (explicitly or implicitly) to define all other directions.

The (visual) top edges of maps usually correspond to the northern
edge of the area represented, unless explicitly stated otherwise
or landmarks are considered more useful for that territory than
specific directions.
On any rotating object, north denotes the side appearing to
rotate counter-clockwise when viewed from afar along the axis of
rotation.

Magnetic north and declination[edit]

Magnetic north is of interest because it is the direction indicated as north on a properly functioning
(but uncorrected) magnetic compass. The difference between it and true north is called themagnetic
declination (or simply the declination where the context is clear). For many purposes and physical
circumstances, the error in direction that results from ignoring the distinction is tolerable; in others a
mental or instrument compensation, based on assumed knowledge of the applicable declination, can
solve all the problems. But simple generalizations on the subject should be treated as unsound, and
as likely to reflect popular misconceptions about terrestrial magnetism.
Maps intended for usage in orienteering by compass will clearly indicate the local declination for
easy correction to true north. Maps may also indicate grid north, which is a navigational term
referring to the direction northwards along the grid lines of a map projection.

Roles of north as prime direction[edit]

The visible rotation of the night sky around the visible celestial pole provides a vivid metaphor of that
direction corresponding to up. Thus the choice of the north as corresponding to up in thenorthern
hemisphere, or of south in that role in the southern, is, prior to world-wide communication, anything
but an arbitrary one. On the contrary, it is of interest that Chinese and Islamic culture even
considered south as the proper top end for maps.[citation needed]
In Western culture:

Maps tend to be drawn for viewing with either true north or magnetic
north at the top
Globes of the earth have the North Pole at the top, or if the Earth's
axis is represented as inclined from vertical (normally by the angle it
has relative to the axis of the Earth's orbit), in the top half.

Maps are usually labelled to indicate which direction on the map

corresponds to a direction on the earth,
usually with a single arrow oriented to the map's representation
of true north,
occasionally with a single arrow oriented to the map's
representation of magnetic north, or two arrows oriented to true
and magnetic north respectively,
occasionally with a compass rose, but if so, usually on a map
with north at the top and usually with north decorated more
prominently than any other compass point.
Up is a metaphor for north. The notion that north should always be
up and east at the right was established by the Greek
astronomer Ptolemy. The historian Daniel Boorstin suggests that
perhaps this was 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.[1]

Roles of east and west as inherently subsidiary directions[edit]

While the choice of north over south as prime direction reflects quite arbitrary historical factors, east
and west are not nearly as natural alternatives as first glance might suggest. Their folk definitions
are, respectively, "where the sun rises" and "where it sets". Except on the Equator, however, these
definitions, taken together, would imply that

east and west would not be 180 degrees apart, but instead would
differ from that by up to twice the degrees of latitude of the location
in question, and
they would each move slightly from day to day and, in
the temperate zones, markedly over the course of the year.

Reasonably accurate folk astronomy, such as is usually attributed to Stone Age peoples or
later Celts, would arrive at east and west by noting the directions of rising and setting (preferably
more than once each) and choosing as prime direction one of the two mutually opposite directions
that lie halfway between those two. The true folk-astronomical definitions of east and west are "the
directions, a right angle from the prime direction, that are closest to the rising and setting,
respectively, of the sun (or moon).

Cultural references[edit]
Being the "default" direction on the compass, north is referred to frequently in Western popular
culture. Some examples include:

The phrase "north of X" is often used to mean "more than X" or
"greater than X", i.e. "The world population is north of 7 billion
people" or "north of 40 [years old]".

Nordicity
List of northernmost items
Nordicism

See also[edit]

Northing
Septentrional

References[edit]
1.

Jump up^ Daniel Boorstin (1983). The Discoverers. Random

House/J.M.Dent & Sons. p. 98.

External links[edit]

The dictionary definition of north at Wiktionary

[hide]

Compass direction

North

Northeast

East

Southeast

Cardinal and ordinal directions

South

Southwest

West

Northwest

Tramontane

Gregale

Levant

Sirocco

The eight principal winds

Ostro

Libeccio

Ponente

Mistral

Categories:

Orientation (geometry)

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