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Septentrional, meaning "of thenorth", is aLatinate adjective sometimes used inEnglish. It is a form of the Latin nounseptentriones, which refers to the seven stars of thePlough (Big Dipper), occasionally called theSeptentrion.
In the 18th century,septentrional languages was a recognised term for theGermanic languages.[1]
TheOxford English Dictionary gives the etymology ofseptentrional as:
[ad. L.septentrio, sing. ofseptentriōnēs, orig.septem triōnēs, the seven stars of the constellation of the Great Bear, f.septem seven +triōnes, pl. oftrio plough-ox. Cf. F.septentrion.][2]
"Septentrional" is more or less synonymous with the term "boreal", derived fromBoreas, a Greek god of theNorth Wind. The constellationUrsa Major, containing the Big Dipper, or Plough, dominates the skies of the North. The usual antonym forseptentrional is the termmeridional, which refers to the noonday sun.
The termseptentrional is found on maps, mostly those made before 1700. Early maps of North America often refer to the northern- and northwesternmost unexplored areas of the continent as at the "Septentrional" and as "America Septentrionalis", sometimes with slightly varying spellings.[note 1] Sometimes abbreviated to "Sep.", it was used in historical astronomy to indicate the northern direction on the celestial globe, together withMeridional ("Mer.") for southern,Oriental ("Ori.") for eastern andOccidental ("Occ.") for western.[3]
The linguistic usage in the 17th and 18th centuries was as anumbrella term. It described "the Germanic languages, usually with particular emphasis on Anglo-Saxon, Old Norse and Gothic."[4] Writing ofJohann Georg Keyßler in 1758,Thomas Gray distinguished between "Celtic" and "septentrional" antiquities.[5]Thomas Percy actively criticised the blurring of the Celtic and the Germanic in the name of the "septentrional", while at the same timeOssianism favoured it.[6]James Ingram in his inaugural lecture of 1807 calledGeorge Hickes "the first of septentrional scholars" for his pioneering lexicographical work on Anglo-Saxon.[7] In current usage, "septentrional fiction" may refer to a setting in the Canadian North.[8]
InFrance, the term septentrional refers to the Northern stretch of theCôtes du Rhône AOC winemaking region.[9] The Northern Rhône, or septentrional, runs along theRhône river from Vienne in the north, to Montélimar in the south. It includes the eightcrus:Côte Rôtie,Condrieu,Château-Grillet,Hermitage,Saint-Joseph,Crozes-Hermitage,Cornas andSaint-Péray.[10] The Southern Rhône is referred to as themeridional (Rhône méridionale), and extends fromMontélimar in the north, toAvignon in the south.
