Austral

Part of speech: adjective

Pronunciation: /ˈɒstɹəl/

Definitions

1. Of or relating to the south or southern regions, particularly those of the Southern Hemisphere
2. Referring to geographical locations or climates that are situated in the southern hemisphere, particularly those that exhibit distinct characteristics of the southern regions
3. Relating to the southern direction or to regions located in the southern half of the Earth

Etymology: The Latin "auster" meant the south wind, the wind that brought rain and warm weather from the south, and it gave Romans the adjective "australis" for anything lying in the south. English borrowed that adjective directly, so "austral" has never had to travel through French; it simply carried the Roman sense of "southern" across the centuries intact. The word's deeper ancestry goes back to a root connected with dawn and the sky, the same root that gave "east" its sense of the sunrise. Romans set "auster" against "aquilo," the north wind, and "austral" thus became the natural partner of "boreal" and the other compass words built on wind names. Its meaning has stayed remarkably stable: from the Roman weather vane to the modern map, it still means the southern side of things.

Synonyms: southern, southward

Antonyms: northern