Etymology
1. O.E.
west "in or toward the west," from P.Gmc.
*wes-t- (cf. O.N.
vestr, O.Fris., M.Du., Du.
west, O.H.G.
-west, only in compounds, Ger.
west), from PIE
*wes- (source of Gk.
hesperos, L.
vesper "evening, west"), perhaps an enlarged form of base
*we- "to go down" (cf. Skt.
avah "downward"), and thus lit. "direction in which the sun sets." Cf. also High Ger. dial.
abend "west," lit. "evening." Fr.
ouest, Sp.
oeste are from Eng.
West used in geopolitical sense from World War I (Britain, France, Italy, as opposed to Germany and Austria-Hungary); as contrast to Communist Russia (later to the Soviet bloc) it is first recorded in 1918.
West Indies is recorded from 1555. The verb
wester "to go west" is recorded from c.1374;
westerly first recorded 1577 in both its (somewhat contradictory) senses of "coming from the west" and "facing toward the west."
2. PIE word
3. *wek⁽ʷ⁾speros
4. From Middle English west, from Old English west, from Proto-West Germanic *westr (“western”), from Proto-Germanic *westrą (“west”), from Proto-Germanic *westraz (“west”), from Proto-Indo-European *wek⁽ʷ⁾speros (“evening”).
5. Cognates
6. Cognate with Scots wast (“west”), North Frisian waast, weest, wäst (“west”), Saterland Frisian Wääste (“west”), West Frisian and Dutch west (“west”), German West (“west”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, and Norwegian Nynorsk vest (“west”), Faroese and Icelandic vestur (“west”), Swedish väst, väster (“west”); also with Irish feascar, feasgar (“evening; vespers”), Cornish gorthugher (“evening”), Manx fastyr (“afternoon, evening; vespers”), Scottish Gaelic feasgar (“afternoon, evening”), Latin vesper (“evening”), Ancient Greek ἕσπερος (hésperos, “evening; western”), Latvian vakars (“evening”), Lithuanian vakaras (“evening”), Czech, Slovak and Slovene večer (“evening”), Kashubian wieczór (“evening”), Polish wieczerz, wieczór (“evening”), Russian вечер (večer, “evening”), Serbo-Croatian вече, вечер, veče, večer (“evening”), Armenian գիշեր (gišer, “night”). Compare also Catalan oest (“west”), French ouest (“west”), Galician oeste, ueste (“west”), Italian ovest (“west”), Portuguese, Spanish oeste (“west”) (all ultimately borrowings of the Old English word). See: Scots '
wast', Frisian, Saterlandic 'Wääste', Cornish '
gorthugher'.