Forms: 1, 6–7 westerne, (1, 6 weasterne); 4–6 westeren, 6– western; 1 wæstrene, 2 westrene, 4–7 westren. [OE. westerne (f. west WEST adv. + -ERN): cf. OS. and OHG. westrôni, ON. vestrœnn (Norw. dial. vestrøn).]
A. adj.
1. Coming from the west. Of the wind, a gale, etc.: Blowing from the west. Of a current of water: Flowing from the west.
c. 1050. Bæda’s Hist., V. xix. (MS. B.). Sona ðæs þe he on scip eode, ða astah westerne wind & bleow.
a. 1100. Aldhelm Gloss., in Napier, O. E. Glosses, xxiii. 17. Zepheri, westernes windes.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XII. xv. (Bodl. MS.). Whanne þe westeren winde blowiþ.
1530. Palsgr., 288/1. Westerne wynde, le vent daual.
1581. A. Hall, Iliad, II. 23. When as the western winde doth meete a field of graine, In haruest time.
1604. E. G[rimstone], trans. D’Acosta’s Hist. Indies, III. iv. 128. They saile with a westerne winde vntill they come to the burning Zone.
1613–6. W. Browne, Brit. Past., I. iv. 79. A westerne milde, and pretty whispering gale.
1673. Ray, Journ. Low C., Rome 386. The commixture of the warm Southerly and Western air, with the cold Northerly and Eastern.
1748. Anson’s Voy., I. x. 103. The western winds which blew almost constantly there.
a. 1771. Gray, Song, 9. Western gales and skies serene Speak not always winter past.
1796. Nelson, Lett., in Nicolas, Disp. (1846), VII. Add. p. lix. I am endeavouring to get to the Eastward, but we have an amazing strong western current.
1802. Leyden, Mermaid, viii. Softly blow, thou western Breeze!
1827. Steuart, Planter’s G. (1828), 331. Removed Trees … appearing unaffected by the western, and southwestern blasts.
1867. Morris, Jason, IV. 94. The piping of the following western breeze.
2. Dwelling in the west (of a country, esp. of England or Scotland); spec. living or originating in the ‘West country’ or south-western counties.
c. 1100. O. E. Chron. (MS. D.), an. 1013. & com Æþelmær ealdorman þyder & þa wæstrena ðeʓenas mid him.
15[?]. Ladye Bessie (Percy Soc.), 61. Hee … drewe an eigle upon the entrye, That the westeren men myghte yt see.
1570. Lambarde, Peramb. Kent (1576), 316. Muche are the Westerne men bound … to Polydore, who … remouing the infamous reuenge from Dorsetshyre, laieth it vpon our men of Kent.
1668. Wilkins, Real Char., I. i. 4. A Western man [would speak it] thus, Chud eat more cheese an chad it.
1693. T. Pitts, New Martyrol. (ed. 4), 527. The … Christian Courage of the Western Sufferers.
1822. Scott, Halidon Hill, I. ii. 497. O, were my western horsemen but come up, I would take part with you!
1841. Lever, O’Malley, xiii. Few Western gentlemen were without constant intercourse with the Athlone attorney.
1869. A. Macdonald, Love, Law & Theol., xxv. 576. There was a respectable muster of western folks got up for the occasion.
b. Of things: Of or belonging to the southwestern counties.
1545. Rates Custom-ho., d vj b. A dossen karsay, iij. A westerne dossen, ii.
1653. W. J., True Gentlew. Delight, 85. To scald Milk after the Western Fashion.
1711. Addison, Spect., No. 129, ¶ 3. Being a Lawyer of the Middle-Temple, a Cornishman by Birth, I generally ride the Western Circuit.
1782. R. Locke (title), The Western Rebellion.
1886. Kington Oliphant, New English, I. 564. The Western dialect appears, as ch’am, ich cham, vilthy (filthy).
3. Having a position relatively west; lying towards or in the west. Western hemisphere: see HEMISPHERE 3.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., VIII. ix. (Tollemache MS.). Amonge þese tripliciteis of houses, þo þat beþ in þe Este ben strenger in here worchynge … þan þe Westren.
1584. Powel, Lloyd’s Cambria, 96. With a great armie out of Mercia and other westerne countries.
1610. Holland, Camden’s Brit., 694. Pennigent, which among the Westerne hils mounteth aloft aboue the rest.
1649. J. Taylor (Water P.), Wand. Wonders West, 14. The farthest Western Parish of … Cornwall.
1671. Milton, P. R., IV. 25. He brought our Saviour to the western side of that high mountain.
1691. Sir G. Mackenzie, Vind. Govt. Scot., 12. As to the bringing in the Highlanders on the Western shires … it is answered, that [etc.].
1748. Anson’s Voy., II. ix. 224. Tempestuous weather from the western quarter.
1784. Cowper, Task, VI. 484. Where England, stretch’d towards the setting sun … o’erlooks the western wave.
1810. Scott, Lady of L., I. viii. The Hunter marked that mountain high, The lone lake’s western boundary.
1848. B. Webb, Cont. Ecclesiol., 117. The plan is quite basilican, containing a western bay between two western towers.
1870. W. H. Knight, W. Australia, 1. The colony of Western Australia was founded on the 1st June, 1829.
1870. Godman (title), Natural History of the Azores, or Western Islands.
1885. Stevenson, Kidnapped, xxiv. We were to pass through the western end of the country of Balquhidder.
b. of the sky or the horizon, esp. as the place of the sun’s setting; also of the sun, or the evening star (cf. WEST a. 1).
1591. Shaks., Two Gent., V. i. 1. The Sun begins to guild the westerne skie.
1596. Spenser, F. Q., V. ix. 35. As the bright sunne, what time his fierie teme Towards the westerne brim begins to draw.
1633. P. Fletcher, Purple Isl., VI. lxxvii. But see, the stealing night, with softly pace, To flie the Westerne Sunne, creeps up the East.
1667. Milton, P. L., X. 92. Now was the Sun in Western cadence low From Noon.
1718. Prior, Solomon, II. 370. The Sun declin’d had shot his Western Ray.
1747. Collins, Ode to Evening, ii. The bright-hair’d Sun Sits in yon western Tent.
1805. Scott, Last Minstrel, III. xxiv. Her blue eyes sought the west afar, For lovers love the western star.
1853. A. Smith, Life-Drama, iv. Poems (1854), 60. From yonder trees I’ve seen the western sky All washed with fire.
1860. Tyndall, Glac., I. xxi. 146. The sun was near the western horizon.
c. Of or belonging to the west; found or produced in the west.
1590. Shaks., Mids. N., II. i. 166. Yet markt I where the bolt of Cupid fell. It fell vpon a little westerne flower.
1764. Goldsm., Trav., 318. My genius spreads her wing, And flies where Britain courts the western spring.
1853. Kane, Grinnell Exp., xxi. (1856), 161. He himself would take the western search.
† d. Western barge (boat, or wherry), a barge, etc., used on the Thames westward of London. Hence Western bargee, pug, man, a navigator of a Western barge or boat.
1505–6. Will of J. Rede (Somerset Ho.). My body … in the nyghte season … to be layde in … a bote or A westurne barge.
1591. Lyly, Endym., IV. ii. In a Westerne barge, when with a good winde and lustie pugges one may goe ten miles in two daies.
1592–1611. Western pug [see PUG sb.2 3].
1603–4. Act 1 Jas. I., c. 16 § 1. Westerne Barges Milboates and all other Vessells ordinarilie serving for other uses then the carryinge of Passengers.
1607. Dekker & Webster, West-w. Hoe, II. ii. The Lob has his Lasse,… the Westerne-man his Pug, [etc.].
1666. Western bargee [see BARGEE].
a. 1704. T. Brown, Walk Lond. & Westm., Wks. 1719, III. 324. A Western-Boat, stow’d with a Mixture of both Sexes. Ibid., 328. Others crowded into Boxes, like Passengers into a Western Wherry. Ibid., 329. He was a Western Bargeman.
e. in the specific names of animals or plants.
1784. Pennant, Arctic Zool. (1792), II. 289. Western Duck. Anas Stelleri, Pallas.
1824. Stephens, in Shaw, Gen. Zool., XII. II. 206. Western Pochard. (Fuligula dispar.)
1848. Gould, Birds Australia, I. Pl. 12. Ieracidea occidentalis, Gould. Western Brown Hawk.
1876. F. G. Waterhouse, in Harcus, S. Austral., 288. Western gerygone. Ibid., 292. Western ground parrakeet.
4. Of or pertaining to the Western or European countries or races as distinguished from the Eastern or Oriental.
1600. Fairfax, Tasso, IV. xvi. These westren rebels, with your power withstand, Plucke vp these weedes, before they ouergroe The gentle garden of the Hebrewes land.
1601. R. Johnson, Kingd. & Commw. (1603), 121. For such an other piece of ground … is not to be found againe in all our western world.
1704. Atterbury, Serm. (1726), I. 339. Those Conspiracies and Rebellions, with which they have … disturb’d the Quiet of this Western World.
1771. C. Burney, Pres. St. Mus. France & Italy (1773), 272, note. As yet there is no regular catalogue of the western MSS. in the Vatican library.
1839. Penny Cycl., XIII. 307/1. The little intercourse that subsisted between the inhabitants of India and the Western nations.
1847. Mrs. A. Kerr, trans. Ranke’s Hist. Servia, 449. They who are desirous of ascertaining … the reaction of Eastern on Western affairs, may examine the Egyptian question.
1883. T. Watts, in 19th Cent., March, 413. The mystic type of all Eastern, and yet the mother of all Western, beauty.
Comb. 1880. L. Wallace, Ben-Hur, 6. After years of residence with the Bedawin, the Western-born … will stop and wait the passing of the stately brute.
b. Western Church, the Latin as distinguished from the Greek or Eastern Church; also, one or other of the early Churches of Western Europe.
1628. Bp. Hall, Old Relig., viii. 72. The Westerne, or Romane Church.
1659. H. Thorndike, Wks. (1846), II. 557. Those controversies about which a settled division is once formed, as now in the western Church.
1838. W. Palmer, Ch. Christ, I. 276. The Western churches … were in communion … with the great apostolical church of Rome.
1850. Neale, Hist. Eastern Ch., I. Introd. 9. The tendency of the Western Church … has been to embroil herself with the kings and kingdoms of this world.
c. Of or belonging to, connected with, characteristic of, the Western Church.
1699. Burnet, 39 Articles, xxi. (1700), 201. All the First General Councils were made up for most part of Eastern Bishops; there being a very inconsiderable Number of the Western among any of them.
1755. T. Amory, Mem. (1769), I. 83, note. The eastern christians, called in contempt Arians by the western tritheists.
1790. Priestley, Gen. Hist. Chr. Ch., II. 311. The Western bishops in general and Liberius himself at their head, were the avowed advocates of the Nicene faith.
1850. Neale, Hist. Eastern Ch., I. 317. The whole body of Eastern and Western Liturgies may be divided into four branches.
1853. C. Hardwick, Chr. Ch., Mid. Age, 265. Gregory VII., who seems to have expected that Crusades, while strengthening his throne, would tend to reunite the Eastern and the Western Christians.
1880. A. P. Stanley, in Fraser’s Mag., May, 600. The Roman Church … remains the great trunk from which the other communions have been divided in Western Christendom.
d. Western Empire, the more westerly of the two parts into which the Roman Empire was divided in 395 A.D. So Western emperor, etc.
1781. Gibbon, Decl. & F., xxvii. (1787), III. 38. Maximus would have obtained, without a struggle, the sole possession of the western empire.
1790. Priestley, Gen. Hist. Chr. Ch., II. 332. After the death or Constantine, the Western emperors were of the Nicene faith.
1840. Milman, Hist. Chr., III. i. II. 343. In the Western provinces, Gaul, Spain, and Britain … the constitution of society was very different.
1865. Bryce, Holy Rom. Emp., 69. Odoacer … did not abolish the Western Empire as a separate power.
5. With States: Constituting the more westerly of the United States of America: cf. WEST sb. 3 b.
1829. Everett, Orat. & Sp. (1850), I. 206. Allow me … to propose the following sentiment:—The Eastern and Western States.
1879. W. Saunders, Through Light Cont., 131. The conditions under which first-class stall-fed beef may be produced in the Western States are [etc.].
b. Of or belonging to the Western States.
Freq. in the names of animals and plants resembling those of the Atlantic coast but whose habitat is west of the Mississippi.
1834. R. C. Sands, Writings, II. 179. ‘What a splurge’ (said a Kentucky representative, in one of the favourite and most expressive words of Western invention), ‘what a splurge she makes.’
1835. C. F. Hoffman, Winter in West, I. 284. Adding, in western phraseology, ‘The way in which folks’ll stare, squire, will be a caution.
1845. P. B. St. John, Trapper’s Bridle, 69. The Eutaws reined in as the two hunters faced them with the deadly western rifle leveled in their direction, and held council.
1871. Leisure Hour, 336/1. A quality of tobacco, the ‘stemmed’ variety commonly called in the trade ‘Western Strips.’
1880. Fraser’s Mag., June, 747. The changing conditions in agriculture caused by Western competition.
6. Directed towards the west; facing westward.
1589. Hakluyt, Voy., To Rdr. ¶ 7. Touching the westerne Nauigations, and trauailes of ours, they succeede naturallie in the thirde and last roome.
1706. London & Wise, Retir’d Gard’ner, I. 21. Of the Western Aspect…. The Western Exposition begins at half an Hour after Eleven, and continues ’till the Sun sets.
1713. Addison, Guardian, No. 107, ¶ 8. A ship at sea has no certain method, in either her eastern or western voyages,… to know her Longitude.
1765. Midnight Spy, vi. 52. The passengers on the western road must furnish him with his demands.
1784. Filson, Kentucky (1793), 13. Salt river … runs a western course near ninety miles.
1795. Cowper, Moralizer Corrected, 18. Distant a little mile he spied A western bank’s still sunny side.
1819. Keats, Eve of St. Mark, 6. And on the western window panes, The chilly sunset faintly told Of unmatur’d green vallies cold.
1896. Lond. Society, Aug., 128. Hunstanton … is the only watering-place on the east coast of England with a western aspect.
7. fig. Of a person’s life or days: Declining.
1615. Tomkis, Albumazar, V. vi. Fye, that a gentleman … Crown’d with such reputation in your youth, Should in your Westerne dayes, loose th’ good opinion Of all your friends.
1879. Longf., in Life (1891), III. 299. We, who are on the western side of life, must forget ourselves a little, and see with their eyes, who are looking out at the eastern windows.
8. Hinder, posterior. Cf. WEST adv. 1 b (c).
1829. Marryat, F. Mildmay, xxiv. What have you done to the western side of your gown?
1840. Haliburton, Clockm., Ser. III. ix. I’d a-kicked them till I kicked their western eends up to their shoulders.
B. sb.
1. A member of a Western race; a native or inhabitant of the West, as distinguished from an Oriental or Asiatic.
1708. Ockley, Hist. Saracens (1848), 337. The folly of the Westerns in despising the wisdom of the Eastern nations.
1863. Smith’s Dict. Bible, II. 295/2. (Medicine) He [Hippocrates] extols the discernment of Orientals above Westerns, and of Asiatics above Europeans, in medical diagnosis.
1882. J. Neil, Palestine Expl., 44. The former figure, ‘wings of the morning,’ to a Western is not a little obscure.
1884. Athenæum, 12 Jan., 54/3. It may not be altogether superfluous to remind Westerns that Russia is now celebrating the three hundredth anniversary of her first printer, Ivan Fedorof.
1917. T. R. Glover, From Pericles to Philip, vii. 218. The employment of the camel in war strikes the Western oddly.
2. A member of the Western or Latin Church.
1860. W. Bright, Hist. Ch. 313–451, 50. Among the bishops who had received the sympathy of the Westerns was Paul of Constantinople.
1865. Pusey, Truth Engl. Ch., 60. S. Basil … blamed the Westerns for their ‘pride, haughtiness, precipitancy.’
1902. H. K. Mann, Lives Popes, I. I. 30. Despite the express declaration of Justinian to the contrary, some of the Westerns persisted in maintaining [etc.].
3. U.S. An inhabitant or native of the Western States.
1846. G. Warburton, Hochelaga, II. 22. There were Southerners and Northerners, Downeasters, and Westerns.
1888. Bryce, Amer. Commw., III. lxv. II. 480. He was a raw rude Western, a man of the people.
