English
west
see also: West
Etymology

From Middle English west, from Old English west, from Proto-West Germanic *westr, from Proto-Germanic *westrą.

Cognate with Scots wast, Saterland Frisian Wääste, Western Frisian west, Dutch west, German West, Danish vest. Cognate also with Old French west, French ouest, Spanish oeste, Portuguese oeste, Catalan oest, Galician oeste, Italian ovest (all ultimately borrowings of the English word). Compare also Latin vesper, with which it is possibly cognate via Proto-Indo-European -.

Pronunciation Noun

west (plural wests)

  1. The direction opposite to that of the earth's rotation, specifically 270°.
    Alternative form: (abbreviation) W
    We used to live in the west of the country.
    Portugal lies to the west of Spain.
  2. The western region or area; the inhabitants thereof. [circa 1300]
  3. (ecclesiastical) In a church: the direction of the gallery, opposite to the altar, and opposite to the direction faced by the priest when celebrating ad orientem.
Translations Adjective

west

  1. Situated or lying in or toward the west; westward.
  2. (meteorology) Of wind: from the west.
  3. Of or pertaining to the west; western.
  4. From the West; occidental.
  5. (ecclesiastial) Designating, or situated in, the liturgical west, that part of a church which is opposite to, and farthest from, the part containing the chancel.
Translations Translations Translations Adverb

west (not comparable)

  1. Towards the west; westwards.
Verb

west (wests, present participle westing; simple past and past participle wested)

  1. To move to the west; (of the sun) to set. [from 15th c.]
    • 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book V, Prologue”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC ↗:
      Foure times his place he shifted hath in sight, / And twice has risen, where he now doth West, / And wested twice, where he ought rise aright.
West
Etymology
  • In most senses and as an English surname, from west, the direction.
  • As a Finnish - surname, Americanized from Vesterinen.
Proper noun
  1. A placename:
    1. The western world; i.e. Western Europe, the US and Canada (sometimes includes Latin America), and Australia and New Zealand.
    2. (historical) The Western Bloc (the non-communist nations of Europe and America).
    3. (US) The Western United States (sometimes excluding the West Coast), particularly (historical) in reference to the 19th century Wild West.
      • 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter I, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC ↗:
        I was about to say that I had known the Celebrity from the time he wore kilts. But I see I will have to amend that, because he was not a celebrity then, nor, indeed, did he achieve fame until some time after I left New York for the West.
    4. A town in Holmes County, Mississippi.
    5. A city in McLennan County, Texas.
    6. An unincorporated community in Wetzel County, West Virginia.
    7. A number of townships in the United States, in Illinois (2), Indiana, Iowa, Missouri, Ohio and Pennsylvania, listed under West Township.
  2. Regions or countries lying to the west of a specified or implied point of orientation.
  3. The western part of any region.
    Senegal is a nation that lies in the West.
  4. One of four positions at 90-degree intervals that lies to the west or on the left of a diagram.
  5. (countable) A person (as a bridge player) occupying this position during a specified activity.
  6. (countable) Surname for a newcomer from the west, or someone who lived to the west of a village.
Translations Translations Translations Translations

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