Taken from
http://www.word-detective.com/120505.html<br /><br /><font color="orange">Dear Word Detective: What are the origins of the directions North, South, East and West? -- Clinton.<br /><br />That's a darn good question, and I'm surprised that someone hasn't asked it before now. On the other hand, I have been asked many, many times whether it is true that the word "news" comes from the initial letters of north, east, west and south. It isn't true. The English word "news" is simply a direct translation of the French "nouvelles," which the French use to mean both "new" and "current events."<br /><br />Beginning with "north," one runs smack into the big problem in defining directions: relative to what? The answer was the sun. The definition of "north" from the Oxford English Dictionary illustrates how it worked: "In the direction of the part of the horizon on the left-hand side of a person facing the rising sun." As our understanding of geophysics improved, criteria were added such as (also from the OED) "towards or in the direction of the point or pole on the earth's surface which lies on the earth's axis of rotation and at which the heavens appear to turn anticlockwise [i.e., counterclockwise] about a point directly overhead" and "towards the magnetic pole near this point, to which a compass needle points." But humanity couldn't wait for all that folderol, and the word "north" itself is thought to be rooted in the word for "left" in the ancient Umbrian language of Italy.<br /><br />"East" derives from the Indo-European root "aus," meaning "to shine," referring to the rising sun. The same root produced "aurora" in Latin and the Old English "Eastre," goddess of the dawn, whose name eventually was adopted as the Christian holiday Easter.<br /><br />"South" harks back to the Indo-European root "sunthaz," meaning "southward," probably based on "sunnon," meaning "in the region of the sun." This makes sense give</font> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <div> </div><br /><div><span style="color:#0000ff" class="Apple-style-span">"If something's hard to do, then it's not worth doing." - Homer Simpson</span></div> </div>