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I was taught somewhere along the way that the term "Orient" for the East comes from the idea that maps were once oriented in that direction.
by allknowingfrog 24d ago
I was taught somewhere along the way that the term "Orient" for the East comes from the idea that maps were once oriented in that direction.
- thaumasiotes 24d agoPut it out of your mind. The term "Orient" comes from the fact that the sun rises in the East; the Latin word (oriens) literally means "rising". This is also why the contrasting term is "Occident" (meaning "falling"), but that word is less well known today.
- allknowingfrog 20d agoWikipedia confirms your explanation and I have no reason to doubt it. Wyoming has the Occidental Hotel, which introduced me to the term, but I never made the connection that its a simple pair of Latin antonyms. I'll correct this in my mental list of "fun facts".