All Topics  
West

 

 
   Email Print
   Bookmark   Link
 

 

West
 
 
  Topics West Topic Home

West is most commonly a noun
Noun

In linguistics, a noun is a member of a large, open class lexical category whose members can occur as the main word in the subject of a clause, the object of a verb, or the object of a preposition....
, adjective
Adjective

In grammar, an adjective is a word whose main syntax role is to grammatical modifier a noun or pronoun, giving more information about the noun or pronoun's definition....
, or adverb
Adverb

An adverb is a part of speech. It is any word that modifies any other part of language: verbs, adjectives , clauses, sentence s and other adverbs, except for nouns; modifiers of nouns are primarily determiners and adjectives....
 indicating direction
Direction (geometry, geography)

Direction is the information contained in the relative position of one point with respect to another point without the distance information. Directions may be either Relative direction to some indicated reference , or absolute according to some previously agreed upon frame of reference ....
 or geography
Geography

Geography is the study of the Earth and its lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena. A literal translation would be "to describe or write about the Earth"....
.

West is one of the four cardinal directions or compass
Compass

A compass, magnetic compass or mariner's compass is a navigational instrument for determining direction relative to the earth's magnetic poles....
 points. It is the opposite of east
East

East is a Direction in geography. It is one of the four cardinal directions or compass points, opposite of west and at right angles to north and south....
 and is perpendicular
Perpendicular

In geometry, two line or plane , are considered perpendicular to each other if they form congruence adjacent angles angles . The term may be used as a noun or adjective....
 to north
North

North is one of the four cardinal directions, specifically the direction that, in Western culture, is treated as the fundamental direction:...
 and south
South

South is one of the cardinal directions and is opposite to the north.By Western world Norm , the bottom side of a map is south; the southern direction has azimuth or bearing of 180?....
.

By convention
Norm (sociology)

A Social norm is the sociology term for the behavioral expectations and cues within a society or group. They have been defined as "the rules that a group uses for appropriate and inappropriate values, beliefs, attitudes and behaviors....
, the left side of a map
Map

A map is a visual representation of an area?a symbolic depiction highlighting relationships between elements of that space such as Object , regions, and topic-comment....
 is west.

To go west using a compass for navigation
Navigation

Navigation is the process of reading, and controlling the movement of a craft or vehicle from one place to another. It is also the term of art used for the specialized knowledge used by navigators to perform navigation tasks....
, set a bearing
Bearing (navigation)

In marine navigation, a bearing is the direction of one object in relation to another object, the other object usually being one's own vessel....
 or azimuth
Azimuth

An Azimuth is the angle from a reference vector space in a reference plane to a second vector in the same plane, pointing toward, , something of interest....
 of 270°.

West is the direction opposite that of the Earth
Earth

Earth is the third planet from the Sun. Earth is the largest of the terrestrial planets in the Solar System in diameter, mass and density. It is also referred to as the World and Wiktionary:Terra.Note that by International Astronomical Union convention, the term "Terra" is used for naming extensive land masses, rather...
's rotation on its axis, and is therefore the general direction towards which the Sun
Sun

The Sun , a G V star, is the star at the center of the Solar System. The Earth and other matter orbit the Sun, which by itself accounts for about 98.6% of the Solar System's mass....
 sets.

During the Cold war
Cold War

The Cold War was the continuing state of conflict, tension and competition that existed between a number of world powers, including the United States, the Soviet Union, People's Republic of China, France, United Kingdom and those countries' respective allies from the mid-1940s to the early 1990s....
 "the West" was often used to refer to the NATO
NATO

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization , also called the Atlantic Alliance, is a military alliance established by the signing of the North Atlantic Treaty on 4 April 1949....
 camp as opposed to the Warsaw Pact
Warsaw Pact

The Warsaw Pact was an organization of communist states in Central Europe and Eastern Europe. The treaty was signed in Warsaw, Poland on May 14, 1955 and official copies were made in Russian language, Polish language, Czech language and German language....
 and non-aligned nations.






Discussion
Ask a question about 'West'
Start a new discussion about 'West'
Answer questions from other users
Full Discussion Forum



Encyclopedia


West is most commonly a noun
Noun

In linguistics, a noun is a member of a large, open class lexical category whose members can occur as the main word in the subject of a clause, the object of a verb, or the object of a preposition....
, adjective
Adjective

In grammar, an adjective is a word whose main syntax role is to grammatical modifier a noun or pronoun, giving more information about the noun or pronoun's definition....
, or adverb
Adverb

An adverb is a part of speech. It is any word that modifies any other part of language: verbs, adjectives , clauses, sentence s and other adverbs, except for nouns; modifiers of nouns are primarily determiners and adjectives....
 indicating direction
Direction (geometry, geography)

Direction is the information contained in the relative position of one point with respect to another point without the distance information. Directions may be either Relative direction to some indicated reference , or absolute according to some previously agreed upon frame of reference ....
 or geography
Geography

Geography is the study of the Earth and its lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena. A literal translation would be "to describe or write about the Earth"....
.

West is one of the four cardinal directions or compass
Compass

A compass, magnetic compass or mariner's compass is a navigational instrument for determining direction relative to the earth's magnetic poles....
 points. It is the opposite of east
East

East is a Direction in geography. It is one of the four cardinal directions or compass points, opposite of west and at right angles to north and south....
 and is perpendicular
Perpendicular

In geometry, two line or plane , are considered perpendicular to each other if they form congruence adjacent angles angles . The term may be used as a noun or adjective....
 to north
North

North is one of the four cardinal directions, specifically the direction that, in Western culture, is treated as the fundamental direction:...
 and south
South

South is one of the cardinal directions and is opposite to the north.By Western world Norm , the bottom side of a map is south; the southern direction has azimuth or bearing of 180?....
.

By convention
Norm (sociology)

A Social norm is the sociology term for the behavioral expectations and cues within a society or group. They have been defined as "the rules that a group uses for appropriate and inappropriate values, beliefs, attitudes and behaviors....
, the left side of a map
Map

A map is a visual representation of an area?a symbolic depiction highlighting relationships between elements of that space such as Object , regions, and topic-comment....
 is west.

To go west using a compass for navigation
Navigation

Navigation is the process of reading, and controlling the movement of a craft or vehicle from one place to another. It is also the term of art used for the specialized knowledge used by navigators to perform navigation tasks....
, set a bearing
Bearing (navigation)

In marine navigation, a bearing is the direction of one object in relation to another object, the other object usually being one's own vessel....
 or azimuth
Azimuth

An Azimuth is the angle from a reference vector space in a reference plane to a second vector in the same plane, pointing toward, , something of interest....
 of 270°.

West is the direction opposite that of the Earth
Earth

Earth is the third planet from the Sun. Earth is the largest of the terrestrial planets in the Solar System in diameter, mass and density. It is also referred to as the World and Wiktionary:Terra.Note that by International Astronomical Union convention, the term "Terra" is used for naming extensive land masses, rather...
's rotation on its axis, and is therefore the general direction towards which the Sun
Sun

The Sun , a G V star, is the star at the center of the Solar System. The Earth and other matter orbit the Sun, which by itself accounts for about 98.6% of the Solar System's mass....
 sets.

During the Cold war
Cold War

The Cold War was the continuing state of conflict, tension and competition that existed between a number of world powers, including the United States, the Soviet Union, People's Republic of China, France, United Kingdom and those countries' respective allies from the mid-1940s to the early 1990s....
 "the West" was often used to refer to the NATO
NATO

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization , also called the Atlantic Alliance, is a military alliance established by the signing of the North Atlantic Treaty on 4 April 1949....
 camp as opposed to the Warsaw Pact
Warsaw Pact

The Warsaw Pact was an organization of communist states in Central Europe and Eastern Europe. The treaty was signed in Warsaw, Poland on May 14, 1955 and official copies were made in Russian language, Polish language, Czech language and German language....
 and non-aligned nations. The expression survives, with an increasingly ambiguous meaning.

Moving continuously west is following a circle of latitude
Circle of latitude

A circle of latitude, on the Earth, is an imaginary east-west circle connecting all locations that share a given latitude. A location's position along a circle of latitude is given by its longitude....
, which, except in the case of the equator
Equator

The equator is the intersection of the Earth's surface with the Plane perpendicular to the Earth's rotation and containing the Earth's center of mass....
, is not a great circle
Great circle

A great circle of a sphere is a circle that runs along the surface of that sphere so as to cut it into two equal halves. The great circle therefore has both the same circumference and the same center as the sphere....
.

Etymology

The English word "west" is cognate to the Old High German
Old High German

The term Old High German refers to the earliest stage of the German language and it conventionally covers the period from around 500 to 1050. Coherent written texts do not appear until the second half of the 8th century, and some treat the period before 750 as 'prehistoric' and date the start of Old High German proper to 750 for this reason...
 word westar, which may derive from an Indo-European
Proto-Indo-European language

The Proto-Indo-European language is the unattested, linguistic reconstruction common ancestor of the Indo-European languages, spoken by the Proto-Indo-Europeans....
 root from which the Latin
Latin

Latin is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Military history of the Roman Empire, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe....
 word vesper, meaning "evening", derives.

Symbolic meanings

In Chinese Buddhism
Buddhism

Buddhism is a family of beliefs and practices considered by most to be a religionand is based on the teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as "The Buddha" , who was born in what is today Nepal....
, the West represents movement toward the Buddha or enlightenment (see Journey to the West
Journey to the West

Journey to the West is one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature. Originally published anonymously in the 1590s during the Ming Dynasty, and even though no direct evidence of its authorship survives, it has been ascribed to the scholar Wu Cheng'en since the 20th century....
). The ancient Aztec
Aztec

Aztec is a term used to refer to certain ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those groups who spoke the Nahuatl and who achieved political and military dominance over large parts of Mesoamerica in the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries, a period referred to as the Late post-Classic period in Mesoamerican chronology....
s believed that the West was the realm of the great goddess of water
Water

Water is a common chemical substance that is essential for the survival of all known forms of life. In typical usage, water refers only to its liquid form or States of matter, but the substance also has a solid state, ice, and a gaseous state, water vapor or steam....
, mist, and maize
Maize

Maize , known as corn in some countries, is a cereal domesticated in Mesoamerica and subsequently spread throughout the American continents....
. In Ancient Egypt
Ancient Egypt

Ancient Egypt was an Ancient history civilization in eastern North Africa, concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile in what is now the modern nation of Egypt....
, the West was considered to be the portal to the netherworld
Netherworld

Netherworld is a synonym for Underworld. It may also refer to:*Netherworld *Netherworld *Netherworld *Netherworld *Netherworld *Netherworld ...
, and is the cardinal direction regarded in connection with death
Death

Death is the permanent termination of the biological functions that define a life organism. It refers to both a particular event and to the condition that results thereby....
, though not always with a negative connotation. Ancient Egyptians also believed that the Goddess
Goddess

A goddess is a female deity. Often deities are part of a polytheism system that includes several deities in a pantheon .Common associations of goddesses are the Earth goddess, the Mother Goddess, Love goddess, and the hearth goddess, reflecting historical gender roles....
 Amunet
Amunet

File:La tombe de Horemheb -2.jpgIn Egyptian mythology, Amunet was a deity having several different characteristics during the long history of the Pantheon of Ancient Egypt....
 was a personification of the West. The Celt
Celt

Celts , is a modern term used to describe any of the European peoples who spoke, or speak, a Celtic languages. The term is also used in a wider sense to describe the Modern Celts of those peoples, notably those who participate in a Celtic culture....
s believed that beyond the western sea off the edges of all maps lay the Otherworld, or Afterlife.

In American literature
American literature

American literature refers to written or literature produced in the area of the United States and Colonial America. For more specific discussions of poetry and theater, see Poetry of the United States and Theater in the United States....
 (eg. The Great Gatsby
The Great Gatsby

The Great Gatsby is a novel by the United States author F. Scott Fitzgerald. First published on April 10, 1925, it is set in Long Island's North Shore and New York City during the summer of 1922....
) moving West symbolizes gaining freedom
Freedom

Freedom may refer to:* Freedom * Freedom , the absence of interference with the sovereignty of an individual by the use of coercion or aggression...
, perhaps as an association with the settling of the Old West (see also Manifest Destiny
Manifest Destiny

Manifest Destiny is the historical belief that the United States was destined and divinely ordained by God in Christianityto expand across the North American continent, from the Atlantic seaboard to the Pacific Ocean....
).