Talk:north

etymology

sorry the etymology of north is so bizzare. i swear to god im not making this stuff up! (ampersand)

RFD

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north

This sense:

2. (meteorology) Of wind, from the north.

seems wrong to me. We frequently describe winds by their source direction, but it doesn't "feel" to me like that's a property of all the various possible source directions ("north", "north-northeast", "land", "sea", "desert", etc.). —Ruakh_TALK 16:31, 7 December 2010 (UTC)

• I think it's OK, except for the meteorology tag. Historically though you're right. In OE, the word was just an adverb. It appeared either alone as an inflected adverb, or as a stem-form in compounds. So (deprecated template usage) north wind as a set term is attested much earlier than other more obviously adjectival uses (although there are plenty of them). Another way of looking at it, though: this could be kind of interpreted now as almost an attributive noun – "wind of the north", just like "wind of the desert" and your other examples. Ƿidsiþ 16:51, 7 December 2010 (UTC)
• Delete per nom. A good place to put a usage note on this would be nice, but I don't know where. Maybe at all the nouns that collocate with the direction words: wind, breeze, etc.​—msh210℠ (talk) 22:35, 18 July 2011 (UTC)

{{look}}

Actually, I'd like to know how the adverb "from the north" works, and I'm about to RFV it. Could someone sat "the wind blew north" meaning "blew from the north"? That would be confusing! I think the fact that "north (adjective) wind" means "wind from the north" rather than "wind blowing northward" is just as confusing: "north" has two rather opposite senses, and they aren't the product of sarcasm ("oh, that's just great..."). Thus, I say we keep the meteorological sense for clarity. Other dictionaries also have both adjective senses ("to the north", "from the north"). If Widsith also thinks the sense is OK, that makes this RFD a draw, and since it's been more than a year, I'm going to close it. - -sche (discuss) 17:43, 3 February 2012 (UTC)

RFV discussion: February–March 2012

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north

Rfv-sense, of the adverb "Of wind, from the north." I just closed a year-old Request for Deletion of the adjective "from the north"; the adjective sense is easy to find in books and other dictionaries. I'm having a hard time thinking of an example of this adverb sense, though, and I checked a few other dictionaries, and they also lack it. Even in phrases like "blew north from", it seems to mean "blew towards the north, from (a southerly point)", as in: "1986 had seemed a year of immense possibility. Now a disaster loomed, of consequences yet unknown, and radiation blew north from Chernobyl." (2008, Richard Rhodes, Arsenals of Folly: The Making of the Nuclear Arms Race, page 4.) - -sche (discuss) 18:08, 3 February 2012 (UTC)

• Seems like a mistake to me. Doesn't appear in the OED either. Ƿidsiþ 10:43, 4 February 2012 (UTC)

RFV-failed. - -sche (discuss) 04:10, 3 March 2012 (UTC)

"Above or higher " is an adjective

"Above or higher " is an adjective not a noun. Siuenti (talk) 14:43, 18 January 2014 (UTC)

Neither nor. It's an adverb. At least in our example sentence: "The wedding cost north of XY pounds." I don't think it can be an adjective, unless you provide an example. 90.186.170.236 10:55, 11 April 2019 (UTC)

 Done Moved out of noun section. Equinox ◑ 13:54, 11 April 2019 (UTC)

superlative?

what is please the superlative, comparative? 188.62.197.243 07:24, 8 March 2015 (UTC)

Comparative: "further north" or "farther north". Superlative: "furthest north", "farthest north", or "northmost". Equinox ◑ 15:33, 8 March 2015 (UTC)

Far North: Canada north of 60°

the part of Canada to the north of 60° in latitude
Microsoft® Encarta® 2009

--Backinstadiums (talk) 17:33, 23 February 2020 (UTC)

left-hand side of church

the left-hand side of a church as you face the altar from the central section of the building
Microsoft® Encarta® 2009

--Backinstadiums (talk) 17:35, 23 February 2020 (UTC)

Added, following a discussion at WT:RFVE#south (later to be at Talk:south). - -sche (discuss) 19:43, 16 October 2021 (UTC)

clever

Per the old 1933 OED, this also means ~"clever" in old slang:

• 1777, Tobias Smollett, The Adventures of Roderick Random ... A New Edition, page 123:

  Do you think I am to be imposed upon by that northern accent which you have assumed? but it shan't avail you, -you shall find me too far north for you.

• 1813, Agnes Maria Bennett, The Beggar Girl and her Benefactors ... Second edition, page 28:

  […] she was what I call too far north for that.

- -sche (discuss) 19:43, 16 October 2021 (UTC)

nor'

Alternative form, as in nor’-east JMGN (talk) 17:33, 25 February 2024 (UTC)