West

West - (Webster's 1828 Dictionary)

WEST, n. [L., a decline or fall, departure. In elements, it coincides with waste.]

1. In strictness, that point of the horizon where the sun sets at the equinox, or any point in a direct line between the spectator or other object, and that point of the horizon; or west is the intersection of the prime vertical with the horizon, on that side where the sun sets. West is directly opposite to east, and one of the cardinal points. In a less strict sense, west is the region of the hemisphere near the point where the sun sets when in the equator. Thus we say, a star sets in the west, a meteor appears in the west, a cloud rises in the west.

2. A country situated in the region towards the sun-setting, with respect to another. Thus in the United States, the inhabitants of the Atlantic states speak of the inhabitants of Ohio, Kentucky or Missouri, and call them people of the west; and formerly, the empire of Rome was called the empire of the West, in opposition to the empire of the East, the seat of which was Constantinople.

WEST, a.

1. Being in a line towards the point where the sun sets when in the equator; or in a looser sense, being in the region near the line of direction towards that point, either on the earth or in the heavens.

This shall be your west border. Num 34.

2. Coming or moving from the west or western region; as a west wind.

WEST, adv. To the western region; at the westward; more westward; as, Ireland lies west of England.

WEST, v.i. To pass to the west; to set, as the sun. [Not in use.]

(1) Usually (yam), "sea" because the Mediterranean lies to the West of Palestine; not usually in figurative expressions; but compare Ho 11:10.

(2) Often (ma`arabh); compare Arabic (gharb), and (maghrib), "west" (maghrib-ush-shems), or simply (maghrib), "sunset."

(3) (mebho' ha-chemesh), "entrance of the sun," (mabho', bo'), "to come in." (Just as mizrach, is the rising of the sun, or east, so mabho' (or ma'arabh], is the setting of the sun, or west: "From the rising of the sun (mizrach-shemesh) unto the going down (mabho) thereof" (Ps 50:1; compare 113:3; Mal 1:11).)

(4) (dusme, from duo), "to enter," "sink," "set." The Greek usage is parallel to the Hebrew just cited: "Many shall come from the east anatole, "rising") and the west" (dusme, "setting") (Mt 8:11).

The chief figurative use of the word "west" is in combination with "east" to denote great or infinite distance, as:

"As far as the east is from the west,

So far hath he removed our transgressions

from us" (Ps 103:12).

Alfred Ely Day