Re: CHAT Easter & East (was: Country Related: Christmas)

"Raymond A. Brown" wrote:

> EAST & OTHER CARDINAL POINTS
> >
> >BTW, does anyone know why the native Latin terms for the four
> >directions were lost in the Romance lgs in favor of Germanic
> >borrowings?
>
> Probably because there weren't simple native Latin words.  The east and
> west were denoted by terms like 'solis ortu' (at the sun's rising)/ 'solis
> occasu' (at the sun's setting) or 'sole oriente' (the rising sun) / 'sole
> occidente' (the setting sun).  It's true 'oriens' and 'occidens' are used
> as nouns to mean "east" & "west" respectively, but the evidence points to
> their being essentially literary words and 'oriens' could also mean "dawn"
> or "morning".  The popular language knew '[sole] levante' & '[sole]
> ponente' which still survive in Italian 'levante' (east) and 'ponente'
> (west) which have currency besides 'est' and 'ovest'.
The comon way to refering to East and West in Spanish is "oriente" and
"occidente", but "este" and "oeste" are also used.  When you speak of "Oeste"
you would probably be speaking on cowboys and redskin indians.

Also used in Spanish:
oriente N, oriental A, oriental N - Asiatic person, este N,
Cercano/Lejano Oriente N - Near/Far East
poniente (or ponente) N - East (probably archaic)
Oriente Medio N - Midle East
occidente N, occidental A, oeste N,
levante N, levantino A, Cultura Levantina


--
Carlos Eugenio Thompson Pinzon