Acompass rose showing the four cardinal directions, the four intercardinal directions, and eight more divisions.
The fourcardinal directions, orcardinal points, are the four maincompass directions:north,south,east, andwest, commonly denoted by their initials N, S, E, and W respectively. Relative to north, the directions east, south, and west are at 90 degree intervals in theclockwise direction.
Theordinal directions (also called theintercardinal directions) are northeast (NE), southeast (SE), southwest (SW), and northwest (NW). The intermediate direction of every set of intercardinal and cardinal direction is called a secondary intercardinal direction. These eight shortest points in thecompass rose shown to the right are:
The intercardinal (intermediate, or, historically, ordinal[2]) directions are the four intermediate compass directions located halfway between each pair of cardinal directions.
Northeast (NE), 45°, halfway between north and east, is the opposite of southwest.
Southeast (SE), 135°, halfway between south and east, is the opposite of northwest.
Southwest (SW), 225°, halfway between south and west, is the opposite of northeast.
Northwest (NW), 315°, halfway between north and west, is the opposite of southeast.
The eight above listed directional names have been further compounded known assecondary intercardinal directions, resulting in a total of 16 named points evenly spaced around the compass. But there exist eventertiary intercardinal directions, resulting in a total of 32 named points evenly spaced around the compass: north (N), north by east (NbE), north-northeast (NNE), northeast by north (NEbN), northeast (NE), northeast by east (NEbE), east-northeast (ENE), east by north (EbN), east (E), etc.
Inastronomy, thecardinal points of anastronomical body as seen in the sky are four points defined by the directions toward which thecelestial poles lie relative to the center of the disk of the object in the sky.[3][4]A line (agreat circle on thecelestial sphere) from the center of the disk to theNorth celestial pole will intersect the edge of the body (the "limb") at the North point. The North point will then be the point on the limb that is closest to the North celestial pole. Similarly, a line from the center to the South celestial pole will define the South point by its intersection with the limb. The points at right angles to the North and South points are the East and West points. Going around the disk clockwise from the North point, one encounters in order the West point, the South point, and then the East point. This is opposite to the order on a terrestrial map because one is looking up instead of down.
Similarly, when describing the location of one astronomical object relative to another, "north" means closer to the North celestial pole, "east" means at a higherright ascension, "south" means closer to the South celestial pole, and "west" means at a lower right ascension. If one is looking at two stars that are below the North Star, for example, the one that is "east" will actually be further to the left.
During theMigration Period, theGermanic names for the cardinal directions entered theRomance languages, where they replaced theLatin namesborealis (orseptentrionalis) with north,australis (ormeridionalis) with south,occidentalis with west andorientalis with east. It is possible that some northern people used the Germanic names for the intermediate directions. Medieval Scandinavian orientation would thus have involved a 45 degree rotation of cardinal directions.[5]
east (*aus-t-) from the word fordawn. The proto-Indo-European form is *austo-s from the root *aues- 'shine (red)'.[7] SeeĒostre.
south (*sunþ-), derived from proto-Indo-European *sú-n-to-s from the root *seu- 'seethe, boil'.[8] Cognate with this root is the wordSun, thus "the region of the Sun".
west (*wes-t-) from a word for "evening". The proto-Indo-European form is *uestos from the root *ues- 'shine (red)',[9] itself a form of *aues-.[7] Cognate with the root are theLatin wordsvesper andvesta and theAncient GreekHestia,Hesperus andHesperides.
In many regions of the world, prevalent winds change direction seasonally, and consequently many cultures associate specific namedwinds with cardinal and intercardinal directions. For example,classical Greek culture characterized these winds asAnemoi.
Inpre-modern Europe more generally, between eight and 32points of the compass – cardinal and intercardinal directions – were given names. These often corresponded to the directional winds of theMediterranean Sea (for example, southeast was linked to theSirocco, a wind from the Sahara).
Particularcolors are associated in some traditions with the cardinal points. These are typically "natural colors" of human perception rather than opticalprimary colors.[vague]
Many cultures, especially inAsia, include the center as afifth cardinal point.
Each direction is often identified with a color, and (at least in China) with amythological creature of that color. Geographical or ethnic terms may contain the name of the color instead of the name of the corresponding direction.[11][12]
Countries where Arabic is used refer to the cardinal directions asAsh Shamal (N),Al Gharb (W),Ash Sharq (E) andAl Janoob (S). Additionally,Al Wusta is used for the center. All five are used for geographic subdivision names (wilayahs, states, regions, governorates, provinces, districts or even towns), and some are the origin of some Southern Iberian place names (such asAlgarve, Portugal andAxarquía, Spain).
InMesoamerica andNorth America, a number of traditionalindigenous cosmologies include four cardinal directions and a center. Some may also include "above" and "below" as directions, and therefore focus on a cosmology of seven directions. For example, among theHopi of theSouthwestern United States, the four named cardinal directions are not North, South, East and West but are the four directions associated with the places of sunrise and sunset at the winter and summer solstices.[27][28][29][30] Each direction may be associated with a color, which can vary widely between nations, but which is usually one of the basic colors found in nature and natural pigments, such as black, red, white, and yellow, with occasional appearances of blue, green, or other hues.[31] There can be great variety in color symbolism, even among cultures that are close neighbors geographically.
TenHindu deities, known as the "Dikpālas", have been recognized in classical Indian scriptures, symbolizing the four cardinal and four intercardinal directions with the additional directions ofup anddown. Each of the ten directions has its own name inSanskrit.[32]
Cardinal and non-compound intercardinal directions in Estonian and Finnish. Notice the intermixed "south" and "southwest". Further intermixing between directions south and northwest occur in otherFinnic languages.
In somelanguages, such asEstonian,Finnish andBreton, the intercardinal directions have names that are not compounds of the names of the cardinal directions (as, for instance,northeast is compounded fromnorth andeast). In Estonian, those arekirre (northeast),kagu (southeast),edel (southwest), andloe (northwest), in Finnishkoillinen (northeast),kaakko (southeast),lounas (southwest), andluode (northwest). In Japanese, there is the interesting situation that native Japanese words (yamato kotoba, kun readings of kanji) are used for the cardinal directions (such asminami for 南, south), but borrowed Chinese words (on readings of kanji) are used for intercardinal directions (such astō-nan for 東南, southeast, lit. "east-south").[dubious –discuss] In theMalay language, addinglaut (sea) to either east (timur) or west (barat) results in northeast or northwest, respectively, whereas addingdaya to west (givingbarat daya) results in southwest. Southeast has a special word:tenggara.
Sanskrit and other Indian languages that borrow from it use the names of thegods associated with each direction: east (Indra), southeast (Agni), south (Yama/Dharma), southwest (Nirrti), west (Varuna), northwest (Vayu), north (Kubera/Heaven) and northeast (Ishana/Shiva). North is associated with the Himalayas and heaven while the south is associated with the underworld or land of the fathers (Pitr loka). The directions are named by adding "disha" to the names of each god or entity: e.g. Indradisha (direction of Indra) or Pitrdisha (direction of the forefathers i.e. south).
The cardinal directions of theHopi language and theTewa dialect spoken by theHopi-Tewa are related to the places of sunrise and sunset at the solstices, and correspond approximately to the European intercardinal directions.[27][28][35]
Use of the compass directions is common and deeply embedded inEuropean andChinese culture (seesouth-pointing chariot). Some other cultures make greater use of other referents, such as toward the sea or toward the mountains (Hawaii,Bali), or upstream and downstream (most notably in ancientEgypt, also in theYurok andKaruk languages).Lengo (Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands) has four non-compass directions: landward, seaward, upcoast, and downcoast.[citation needed]
Some languages lack words forbody-relative directions such as left/right, and use geographical directions instead.[36]
^U.S. Army,Advanced Map and Aerial Photograph Reading, Headquarters, War Department, Washington, D.C. (17 September 1941), "DETERMINATION OF DIRECTION BY FIELD EXPEDIENTS"[1]
^See e.g. Weibull, Lauritz.De gamle nordbornas väderstrecksbegrepp. Scandia 1/1928; Ekblom, R.Alfred the Great as Geographer. Studia Neophilologica 14/1941-2; Ekblom, R.Den forntida nordiska orientering och Wulfstans resa till Truso. Förnvännen. 33/1938; Sköld, Tryggve.Isländska väderstreck. Scripta Islandica. Isländska sällskapets årsbok 16/1965.
^Helmut Nickel (2004)."Black against white: What color was King Arthur's horse?".Arthuriana.14 (2):69–72.doi:10.1353/art.2004.0089.JSTOR27870606. Nickel also claims that at the 201 BCbattle of Baideng,Mo-tun's cavalry were segregated by color: "red (brown) horses formed the vanguard, blacks the rear, whites the right wing, greys (the closest to blue) the left [... and] in the center of the trap the hapless Chinese emperor, whose sacred color was the Imperial yellow." Nickel citesI.P. Potapov (1975). "Uber den Pferdekult bei den turksprachigen Volkern des Sajan-Altai-Gebirges".Abhandlungen und Berichte des Staatlichen Museums für Volkerkunde Dresden.34: 486.
^abMalotki, Ekkehart (1979),Hopi-Raum: Eine sprachwissenschaftliche Analyse der Raumvorstellungen in der Hopi-Sprache, Tübinger Beiträge zur Linguistik (in German), vol. 81, Tübingen: Gunter Narr Verlag, p. 165, "Die Ausrichtung des Hopi-Kardinalsystems" (The Orientation of the Hopi Cardinal System),ISBN3-87808-081-6
^Curtis, Edward S. (1922),Hodge, Frederick Webb (ed.),The Hopi, The North American Indian, vol. 12, Norwood, Mass.: The Plimpton Press, p. 246,archived from the original on 22 December 2015, retrieved23 August 2014,Hopi orientation corresponds only approximately with ours, their cardinal points being marked by the solstitial rising and setting points of the sun.... Their cardinal points therefore are not mutually equidistant on the horizon and agree roughly with our semi-cardinal points.
^Fewkes, Jesse Walter (1897),"The Group of Tusayan Ceremonials Called Katcinas",Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, vol. 15, Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, p. 258, retrieved22 August 2022,The names of the four horizon cardinal points are, kwiniwi, northwest; tevyü'ña, southwest; tatyúka, southeast, and hopokyüka (syncopated hópoko), northeast.
^Anderson, Kasper Wrem; Helmke, Christophe (2013), "The Personifications of Celestial Water: The Many Guises of the Storm God in the Pantheon and Cosmology of Teotihuacan",Contributions in New World Archaeology,5:177–179
^H. Rodrigues (22 April 2016)."The Dikpalas".mahavidya.ca.Archived from the original on 12 August 2018. Retrieved12 August 2018.
^Ngurra-kurlu: A way of working with Warlpiri people Pawu-Kurlpurlurnu WJ, Holmes M and Box L. 2008, Desert Knowledge CRC Report 41, Alice Springs
^Stephen, Alexander M. (1936),Parsons, Elsie Clews (ed.),Hopi Journal of Alexander M. Stephen, Columbia University Contributions to Anthropology, vol. 23, New York: Columbia University Press, pp. 1190–1191,OCLC716671864
