Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Western lands or regions; the west.
- n. The countries of Europe and the Western Hemisphere.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. The region of the setting sun; the western part of the heavens; the west: opposed to orient.
- n. [cap. or lowercase] With the definite article, the west; western countries; specifically, those countries lying to the west of Asia and of that part of eastern Europe now or formerly constituting in general European Turkey; Christendom. Various countries, as Russia, may be classed either in the Occident or in the Orient.
Wiktionary
- n. The part of the horizon where the sun last appears in the evening; that part of the earth towards the sunset; the west; – opposed to orient. Specifically, in former times, Europe as opposed to Asia; now, also, the Western hemisphere.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. The part of the horizon where the sun last appears in the evening; that part of the earth towards the sunset; the west; -- opposed to
orient . Specifically, in former times, Europe as opposed to Asia; now, also, the Western hemisphere.
WordNet 3.0
- n. the countries of (originally) Europe and (now including) North America and South America
- n. the hemisphere that includes North America and South America
Etymologies
- Middle English, from Old French, from Latin occidēns, occident-, from present participle of occidere, to set (used of the sun); see occasion.
Examples
“Occasus derives from occident-em, "setting," and signifies a westerly "falling, going down.”
Architecture and Memory: The Renaissance Studioli of Federico da Montefeltro
“An answer to this will be the key to occident and oriental debate.”
“Can Western fantasy ever truly deal with the non-occident?”
Yatterings » Right fantastic (3) – Stan Nicholls interviewed
“That†™ s not to say Western fantasy authors shouldn†™ t tackle the non-occident but they need to be wary of the many pitfalls.”
Yatterings » Right fantastic (1) – James Barclay interviewed
“And I told him how I felt the need to approach all that by living the experience internally, all united - people from the orient and the occident - in a vast movement of love, because it is the only cement possible to build 'something else'.”
Rebuilding a robust intellectual scaffolding as an approach to the eternal Vedic truths
“Turkey should be a part of the EU, a bridge between the occident and the orient, but only after it has evolved into the twenty-first century.”
Turkey hasn’t Evolved Freedom of Speech « Eclectics Anonymous
“Isaac, J. (1953), Le Peri hermeneias en occident de Boèce à Saint Thomas.”
“La réalisatrice, Mira Nair, est déjà connue en occident pour son film Salaam Bombay!”
“Note and observe that this doth argue and portend I know not what of the west and occident of my time, and signifieth that the south and meridian of mine age is past.”
Five books of the lives, heroic deeds and sayings of Gargantua and his son Pantagruel
“Et dixit Abraham, Quia dixi, Vere non est timor Dei in loco isto: et occident me propter uxorem meam.”
seanahan In my understanding, the original meaning of the word was to set, as in the sun, just as Orient comes from to rise, as in the sun. The sun rises in the east (orient) and sets in the west (Occident). Turkey was known as the Orient (by Romans) and as Anatolia (by Greeks, the word coming from the Greek for east). Eventually, it moved further east, until it reached china. Aug 21, 2008
super-logos so is South America. Yet when a person takes Western Lit, I doubt there is much from South America in his book or in the pedagogy. The America Columbus discovered seems to be, in the minds most people here in the US, to be that land mass in North America. Aug 20, 2008
mollusque And why is Western Hemisphere used instead of "the Americas"? Parts of Europe and Africa are in the Western Hemisphere. Aug 20, 2008
super-logos We say, "Western Literature," not, "Occidental Literature." Why? Aug 20, 2008
super-logos Thank you, mollusque. Aug 20, 2008
mollusque It refers to the setting sun, which falls toward the western horizon. From occidens, present participle of occidere to fall towards, set, die. Aug 20, 2008
super-logos opposite of orient. I love this word. It comes from the Latin meaning to kill or to slay. In pre-Columbian thought, people believed a ship would drop off the edge of the world if it went beyond the horizon. One might really die or be slain if one fell off the edge of the earth! So going west will result in an occidental event. If I am wrong about this word, please correct me. Any other ideas? Aug 20, 2008