Also, I was quite old by the time I learned that "Oriental" literally just means "direction of the sunrise". So to "orient" would specifically mean looking East.

Before compasses all indicated North, "the North" was associated with cold and evil, the south was associated with warmth and prosperity, and the East was considered neutral when establishing bearings.

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schoen 5 days ago | parent | next [-]

> Also, I was quite old by the time I learned that "Oriental" literally just means "direction of the sunrise".

Even more literally "of the rising" ("occidental" meaning "of the falling"). The sun is of course implied here, but the Latin verbs orior and occido more generally indicate rising and falling motions of anyone and anything.

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Affric 4 days ago | parent [-]

Interestingly “meridional” could mean south in some languages because it was towards the equator… which is funny when it’s used south of the equator.

	▲	schoen 4 days ago \| parent [-]
		So again, even more literally, it's "of the midday, of the noon", so "toward the noon, noonwards". And in the northern hemisphere, the noon happens in the direction of the equator, so southward.

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marcosdumay 4 days ago | parent | prev [-]

> "the North" was associated with cold and evil, the south was associated with warmth and prosperity

In Europe. And probably even only far from the Mediterranean.