Where does “north” come from?

North derives from Middle English north, from Old English norþ, from Proto-Germanic nurþrą, from Proto-Indo-European ner-, ultimately from the Proto-Indo-European root h₁en.

north (English): One of the four major compass points,...

Definitions

  1. One of the four major compass points,...

Ancestry of “north”, step by step

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Middle Englishnorthnorth, northernness; A location to the north; the...
2Old Englishnorþnorth
3Proto-Germanicnurþrąnorth, northern; north, northward
4Proto-Germanicnurþraznorth, northern
5Proto-Indo-European*nérbelow the surface, below

Words derived from “north”

Every word from Proto-Indo-European *nér →