southern
sout·hern
adjective
in or characteristic of a region of the United States south of (approximately) the Mason-Dixon line
- “southern hospitality”
- “southern cooking”
- “southern plantations”
from the south; used especially of wind
- “a hot southerly wind”
- “southern breezes”
- “the winds are southerly”
Origin
From Middle English southerne, sothern, sutherne, from Old English sūþerne (“southern, southerly, coming from the south; of southern make”), from Proto-Germanic *sunþrōnijaz (“southern”), from Proto-Indo-European *sh₂un-, *sh₂wen-, r/n-stem alternation of *sóh₂wl̥ (“sun”). Cognate with Scots southron, sudron (“southern”), Old Frisian sūthern, sūdern (“southern”), Middle Low German sūdern (“southern”), Middle High German sundern (“southern”), Icelandic suðrænn (“southern, tropical”). By surface analysis, south + -ern.
Phrases
- Great Southern
- southern African frilled shark
- Southern Alps
- southern arrowwood
- Southern Athabaskan
- southern banjo frog
- southern beech
- southern belle
Related words
WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.