a. and sb. Forms: 1, 3 suðerne, 1 suþerne, 4 soþern, sotherin, 5 sothryn, -(e)ren, soþeren, -erne; 4 souþerne, -erin, -eren, 4–7 southerne (5 sow-), 5– southern; 5–6 southrene, 5–7 southren, 7 -rine. [OE. súðerne (f. súð SOUTH adv. + -ERN.), = ON. suðrœnn, OHG. sundrôni. See also SOUTHRON.]
A. adj. 1. Of persons: Living or originating in, coming from, the south, esp. of Great Britain (= English), of England, or of Europe.
c. 950. Lindisf. Gosp., Matt., Int. 19. Ðy cwoen suðerne ʓemyndʓade.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Parson’s Prol., 42. But trusteth wel, I am a southren man.
1610. [see NORTHERN a. 1].
1646. J. Hall, Poems, I. 10. As feathers on a Southern-hacneys head.
1802. G. Ellis, Lett., in Lockhart, Scott (1837), I. x. 346. In the only situation which can enable a Southern reader to estimate their merits.
1871. Skeat, in Joseph of Arimathie, p. xi. The southern forms in the poem being due to a southern scribe.
b. U.S. Belonging to the Southern States.
1839. W. E. Channing, Wks. (1884), 553/1. Congress must be an arena in which Northern and Southern parties will be arrayed against each other.
1849. [see NORTHERN a. 1 b].
1888. Gunter, Mr. Potter, xii. 143–4. The most desperate charge ever made in the war by Southern troops.
2. Of the wind: Blowing from the south.
c. 888. K. Ælfred, Boeth., vi. Swa eac se suðerna wind hwilum mid miclum storme ʓedrefeð þa sæ.
c. 1000. Sax. Leechd., III. 276. Ealne ðone cwyld ðe se suðerna wind auster acænð.
c. 1205. Lay., 32038. Com þe wind suðerne, þa sæt an heore wille.
c. 1290. S. Eng. Leg., I. 232. Þo cam sone a souþerne wynd, þat northþe-ward drof heom faste.
1382. Wyclif, Ps. lxxvii. 26. He … broȝte in his vertue the southerne wynd.
c. 1440. Pallad. on Husb., I. 1104. The southern wynd is best, as wist Is wel.
1548. Elyot, Notus, the southerne wynde.
1565. Cooper, Thesaurus, s.v. Notus, The southerne windes puffe vp the sayles.
1626. Bacon, Sylva, § 217. The Thinner or Drier Aire, carrieth not the Sound so well, as the more Dense: As appeareth … in moist Weather, and Southern Winds.
1697. Dryden, Æneid, III. 96. But southern gales invite us to the main.
1748. Anson’s Voy., II. i. 116. The southern winds … blow off the land in violent gusts…. This seems to be owing to the obstruction of the southern gale, by the hills in the neighbourhood.
1835. Penny Cycl., III. 27/1. The southern trade-wind … always preserves its direction.
3. Situated or lying to the southward or in the south; having a position relatively south.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Hom., II. 584. Heo … com fram ðam suðernum ʓemærum to Salomone binnon Hierusalem.
1594. [see SOUTHERNLY adv. 1].
1604. E. G[rimstone], D’Acosta’s Hist. Indies, I. ii. 5. The other Antarticke or Southerne Pole.
1658. Dryden, Stanzas O. Cromwell, xxxi. We boldly cross’d the Line, And bravely fought where Southern Stars arise.
1713. Pope, Windsor Forest, 391. Under southern skies.
1774. Goldsm., Nat. Hist. (1776), IV. 49. The Agouti … is found in great abundance in the southern parts of America.
1841. Elphinstone, Hist. Ind., I. 475. The disappearance of the Greeks after the overthrow of their southern kingdom.
1868. Rep. U.S. Commissioner Agric. (1869), 21. A large proportion of this advance was in the southern States.
Comb. 1719. De Foe, Crusoe, I. (Globe), 193. The Current … did not so hurry me as the Southern Side Current had done.
b. Astr. In the names of constellations, as Southern Cross, Crown, Fish, Triangle.
1594. Blundevil, Exerc., IV. xix. (1597), 223 b. The Southerne Crowne, called Corona Australis. Ibid., 224. The hinder part of the Southerne fish hauing diuers startes without name.
1700–. [see CROSS sb. 12].
1771. Encycl. Brit., I. 487. The ancient Constellations [include] … Corona Australis, The Southern Crown,… [and] Piscis Australis, The Southern Fish.
1845. Gosse, Ocean, iv. (1849), 178. Of all the constellations that stud the sky of the southern hemisphere, there is none that more strikes a stranger than the Southern Cross.
1875. Encycl. Brit., II. 817/1. The constellations added by Hevelius [include] … Sextans, The Sextant;… Triangulum Australe, The Southern Triangle.
4. Of things: Pertaining or belonging to, produced by, found in, characteristic of, the south.
c. 1000. Sax. Leechd., II. 224. Þæt is suþerne læcedom.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Hom., II. 584. And hire olfendas bæron suðerne wyrta, and deorwurðe gymstanas.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 20061. In a writt þis ilk i fand…. In sotherin englis was it draun.
1387. [see B. 1].
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 467/1. Sowtherne, idem quod sowthely.
a. 1548. Hall, Chron., Hen. VI., 101. Meanynge to haue … a southerne byl, to conteruayle a Northren bastard.
1591. Sylvester, Du Bartas, I. v. 877. To seek adventure In Southren Climates for a milder Winter.
1622. in Foster, Eng. Factories Ind. (1908), II. 43. Which … brings them quantetyes of southrine commodities.
1709. Pope, Ess. Crit., 400. That sun … not alone the southern wit sublimes, But ripens spirits in cold northern climes.
1748. [see NORTHERN a. 3].
1801. Farmer’s Mag., Jan., 110. The great demand for the southern markets in the autumn.
1886. Kington Oliphant, New English, I. i. 68. The line, he ne ȝildis ham þaire mede (she yields them not their meed); a curious medley of Northern and Southern pronouns.
b. Southern lights, the Aurora Australis.
1775. Phil. Trans., LXVIII. 409. Some Southern lights, very rare and motionless.
1777. G. Forster, Voy. round World, I. 116. The stars were sometimes hid by … these southern lights (aurora australis).
1867. Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., 62. Cook was the first navigator who recorded the southern lights.
5. a. In the specific names of animals, birds or fishes: (see quots. and the sbs.).
Other examples occur in Shaw’s Gen. Zool. (1800–24) and in Lydekker’s Roy. Nat. Hist. (1894–96).
1813. Shaw, Nat. Misc., XXIV. 1058. The *Southern Apteryx.
1690. Lond. Gaz., No. 2614/4. A Pack of *Southern Beagles to be sold.
1781. Latham, Gen. Synop. Birds, I. I. 264. *Southern Brown Parrot…. Inhabits New Zealand.
c. 1880. Cassell’s Nat. Hist., III. 264. The *Southern Caracaras (Ibycter australis) are said to run with extreme quickness. Ibid., 144. The *Southern Cavy (Cavia australis) … inhabits Patagonia.
1890. Cent. Dict., Micropterus.… Bass of this genus are variously known as … white-trout, *southern or Roanoke chub [etc.].
1790. J. White, Jrnl. Voy. N. S. Wales, 266. *Southern Cottus, Cottus Australis.… This fish did not exceed four inches in length.
c. 1880. Cassell’s Nat. Hist., III. 116. The little *Southern Field Vole (Arvicola arvalis).
1843. Penny Cycl., XXVII. 283/1. The bifid cæcum in the *Southern Manatee.
1882. Jordan & Gilbert, Synopsis Fishes N. Amer., 929. Argyrops chrysops, *Southern Porgee.
1785. Latham, Gen. Synop. Birds, III. I. 187. *Southern Sandpiper … inhabits Cayenne. Ibid., II. 365. *Southern Tern … inhabits Christmas Island. Ibid. (1823), Gen. Hist. Birds, VI. 322. *Southern Wagtail…. Inhabits New-Holland, and has the air and manners of our Common Wagtail.
1868. Chambers’s Encycl., X. 151/2. The *Southern or Cape Whale (Balæna australis) is now regarded as a distinct species.
b. In the specific names of plants.
Cf. OE. súðerne popiʓ, rædic, wermód.
1856. A. Gray, Man. Bot. (1860), 267. Bumelia lycioides.… *Southern Buckthorn…. Moist ground, S[outh] Kentucky and southward. Ibid., 78. Vitis vulpina. Muscadine or *Southern Fox-Grape.
1845–50. Mrs. Lincoln, Lect. Bot., App. 121/1. Lilium catesbæi, *Southern lily.
1607. Markham, Caval., III. 17. Not like your *southerne Oates light and emptie, which in the north wee call skeggs.
1840. Penny Cycl., XVIII. 171/2. The *southern Pine (Pinus australis or P. palustris)…. A native of Virginia and the neighbouring states of America.
1856. A. Gray, Man. Bot. (1860), 470. Lilium Catesbæi, *Southern Red Lily.
6. Facing or directed towards the south.
1706. London & Wise, Retir’d Gard’ner, 19. What fruit best agrees with a Southern Wall. Ibid., 20. The Southern Exposition.
1781. Cowper, Retirement, 494. There, prison’d in a parlour snug and small, Like bottled wasps upon a southern wall.
1900. Bp. W. How, Lighter Moments, 37. I have a very good garden with a southern slope.
7. Performed or done in the south.
1748. Anson’s Voy., I. ix. 92. This … would render all that southern navigation infinitely securer than at present.
8. As adv. Towards the south.
1678. Dryden, All for Love, I. i. All Southern, from yon Hills, the Roman Camp Hangs o’er us black and threatning.
9. Comb., as southern-headed, -tinted.
1678. Lond. Gaz., No. 1308/4. A broad squot white beagle Bitch,… southern-headed.
1890. ‘R. Boldrewood,’ Col. Reformer (1891), 341. The nut-brown maid, blushing through her southern-tinted skin in a very visible manner.
B. sb. 1. Southern men. rare.
1387. Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), II. 163. Men of myddel Engelond … vnderstondeþ bettre þe side langages, norþerne and souþerne, þan norþerne and souþerne vnderstondeþ eiþer oþer.
c. 1470. Henry, Wallace, IV. 609. Ane awfull salt the Sothren son began. Ibid., 665. Thocht Sotheren had it suorn.
1622. Drayton, Poly-olb., xxii. 903. The Southern on this side, for Yorke ‘a Warwicke’ cry. Ibid., 1127. The Southern expert were, in all to war belong.
1818. Scott, Hrt. Midl., viii. A sturdy Scotsman, with all sort of prejudices against the southern, and the spawn of the southern.
2. A native of the south: a. Of Great Britain, or of parts of the United Kingdom.
1721. Ramsay, Prospect of Plenty, 82. The Southerns will with pith your project bauk.
1814. Scott, Lord Isles, VI. xxvi. Both Southern fierce and hardy Scot.
a. 1849. H. Coleridge, Ess. (1851), I. 190. The Southerns, and some of you Northerns too, have a strange idea of the lakes.
1874. S. Wilberforce, Ess., I. 26. Poor stay-at-home Southerns whose nerves were not being braced by the invigorating air of the eastern Highlands.
b. Of Europe.
1830. H. N. Coleridge, Greek Poets, 18. That the old Greek and Roman poets were … Southerns, or Inhabitants of the South of Europe.
1856. N. Brit. Rev., XXVI. 127. Vegetable oil in lamps lights the Southerns now as in old classical days.
1870. Miss L. Toulmin Smith, Eng. Gilds, Introd. p. lxxiii. When … these Southerns brought Christianity into the North.
c. In general use.
1846. G. Warburton, Hochelaga, II. 314. There were Hamburg Jews, Spaniards from the Havannah, Northerns and Southerns, Westerns, English, Canadians, and a few who had no country in particular.
1885. Sir H. Taylor, Autobiog., I. 353. The trading interests of the Southerns [of China] were identical with our own.
Hence Southern v., to become more southerly.
1870. Daily News, 12 May, 6/2. At 7.30 a.m. the wind was S.E., but southerning fast.
1894. Times, 6 Aug., 5/2. The breeze southerned and came fresher.
