south
South or South is a major sky direction and shows all over the world to the South Pole , except there. The directional information is used for navigation as well as for orientation and is used to indicate geographic coordinates , for example . Also on other planets of the solar system or on the moon there is a direction south pointing to the south pole there .
Word origin
The words south and south are based on the same Germanic directional adverb sunþa- 'to the south'; the "ü" has only been under Dutch influence since the 12th century. In addition to the Anglo-Saxon form sûþan with a secondary loss of the nasal (characteristic of North Sea Germanic languages ), there is Old High German sundan , Old Norse sunnan ; therefore there is also an etymological connection with sun - ags. sunne ; . ahd sunna , SUNNO ; mhd. sunne - presumed. Similar is found - from Urm. * sunþra- , cf. ahd. sundar - Middle Low German Süder as an adjective / adverb, south ', Dutch Zuider from which Southshore , South Wind' is derived.
With regard to a southerly wind , the phrase “There is a south blowing” (from the south) is common. South is a rather rare wind direction in large parts of Western and Central Europe .
Other names, symbols and myths
In German, south and south are synonymous terms for the same cardinal point, although they are only used in the singular and usually without an article , especially in meteorology and sailor's language . The two words or the expression southerly direction are not only used as a designation for an abstract cardinal direction, but also with the meaning of a topographically given reference to the direction of the midday sun or the midday point or the daily high sun. With this reference to the upper culmination in the day arc of the sun, south also means the Latin meridies ' middle of the day ' (see meridian (astronomy) , meridian (geography) and meridional zone ).
With a specific reference, south , then mostly used with an article, means something to the south, for example parts, parts, halves, areas in the south. For example, “the south” can also mean certain city districts, landscapes or parts of the country, countries and people, peoples or nations.
South as the direction of the compass can be represented in various ways by symbols , not just by a letter derived from the abbreviation . In China the branch of the horse (午wǔ ) and the trigram fire (離lí ) symbolize the direction of the south. In mythical realms, roles, characters or figures can symbolize the south. So Mesembria the Roman Hore of midday. In Norse mythology four dwarfs are known, Norðri, Suðri, Austri and Vestri , who bear the skull of Ymir , from which the sir built the vault of heaven; Suðri is the dwarf of the south ( an. Suðr 'southwards, southwards').
Definitions of the term
The abstract concept of south or south corresponds to a direction that the letter symbol S can stand for. This is the direction that is opposite to north and is indicated by an angle bisector between east (90 degrees ) and west (270 degrees). In astronomical and nautical contexts, the corresponding line on a compass rose shows this direction.
At astronomical noon , 12 o'clock true local time (WOZ), the center of the sun passes the meridian of a location . At the moment of the (upper) meridian passage , the sun in the south stands for locations in the northern hemisphere with a (geographical) latitude above that of the tropic . This happens at all locations of the same (geographical) longitude at the same time, with increasing latitude the sun is lower over the south point on the horizon .
A rough determination of the direction S is therefore also possible at higher latitudes in the northern hemisphere when the sun is visible by means of an analog clock showing normal time ( MOZ ) by aligning it with the sun according to its hour hand: then the one that bisects the angle between the hour hand and the 12-line mark Line approximately to the South Pole .
In Central Europe, the needles of the compass are almost always pointing north or south. A tip of the magnetic needle points to the magnetic south pole , the so-called geomagnetic north pole , which does not exactly coincide with the geographic north pole , however, so that a location-dependent declination occurs. Their direction and amount in the angle between true north and magnetic south is known as the declination . For the exact determination of the declination and thus for the calculation of the difference, corresponding information is noted on topographic maps , or special maps for the magnetic field ( isocline maps) are used.
In the cartography according to Mercator , which is widespread today, “South” is shown on the lower edge of the sheet of the maps .
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b SOUTH, m., N., Cardinal direction, area around noon, the wind blowing from this direction . In: Jacob Grimm , Wilhelm Grimm : German Dictionary . Hirzel, Leipzig 1854–1961 ( woerterbuchnetz.de , University of Trier).
- ↑ a b c SOUTH . In: Grimm: German dictionary. Hirzel, Leipzig 1854–1961 ( woerterbuchnetz.de , University of Trier).
- ↑ a b c south, in the digital dictionary of the German language (DWDS).
- ↑ SOUTH . In: Grimm: German dictionary. Hirzel, Leipzig 1854–1961 ( woerterbuchnetz.de , University of Trier).
