The wordsouth comes fromOld Englishsūþ, from earlierProto-Germanic*sunþaz ("south"), possibly related to the sameProto-Indo-European root that the wordsun derived from. Some languages describe south in the same way, from the fact that it is the direction of the sun at noon (in the Northern Hemisphere),[1] like Latin meridies 'noon, south' (from medius 'middle' + dies 'day', English:cf.meridional), while others describe south as the right-hand side of the rising sun, like Biblical Hebrew תֵּימָן teiman 'south' from יָמִין yamin 'right', Aramaic תַּימנַא taymna from יָמִין yamin 'right' and Syriac ܬܰܝܡܢܳܐ taymna from ܝܰܡܝܺܢܳܐ yamina (hence the name ofYemen, the land to the south/right of theLevant[2]).
True south is one end of the axis about which theEarth rotates, called theSouth Pole. The South Pole is located inAntarctica.Magnetic south is the direction towards the southmagnetic pole, some distance away from the south geographic pole.[5]
TheGlobal South refers to the socially and economically less-developed southern half of the globe. 95% of the Global North has enough food and shelter, and a functioning education system.[7] In the South, on the other hand, only 5% of the population has enough food and shelter. It "lacks appropriate technology, it has no political stability, the economies are disarticulated, and their foreign exchange earnings depend on primary product exports".[7]
The country ofSouth Africa is so named because of its location at the southern tip of Africa. Upon formation the country was named theUnion of South Africa in English, reflecting its origin from the unification of four formerly separate British colonies.Australia derives its name from the LatinTerra Australis ("Southern Land"), a name used for a hypothetical continent in the Southern Hemisphere since ancient times.
