The four cardinal directions, or cardinal points, are the four main compass directions: north, south, east, and west, commonly denoted by their initials N, S, E, and W respectively. Relative to north, the directions east, south, and west are at 90 degree intervals in the clockwise direction.
The ordinal directions (also called the intercardinal directions) are northeast (NE), southeast (SE), southwest (SW), and northwest (NW). The intermediate direction of every set of intercardinal and cardinal direction is called a secondary intercardinal direction. These eight shortest points in the compass rose shown to the right are:
-
West-northwest (WNW)
-
North-northwest (NNW)
-
North-northeast (NNE)
-
East-northeast (ENE)
-
East-southeast (ESE)
-
South-southeast (SSE)
-
South-southwest (SSW)
-
West-southwest (WSW)
Points between the cardinal directions form the points of the compass. Arbitrary horizontal directions may be indicated by their azimuth angle value.
Determination
Additional points
Degrees of rotation
The directional names are routinely associated with the degrees of rotation in the
unit circle, a necessary step for
calculations (derived from
trigonometry) and for use with Global Positioning
Satellite (GPS) receivers. The four cardinal directions correspond to the following degrees of a compass:
-
North (N): 0° = 360°
-
East (E): 90°
-
South (S): 180°
-
West (W): 270°
Intercardinal directions
The intercardinal (intermediate, or, historically, ordinal
) directions are the four intermediate compass directions located halfway between each pair of cardinal directions.
-
Northeast (NE), 45°, halfway between north and east, is the opposite of southwest.
-
Southeast (SE), 135°, halfway between south and east, is the opposite of northwest.
-
Southwest (SW), 225°, halfway between south and west, is the opposite of northeast.
-
Northwest (NW), 315°, halfway between north and west, is the opposite of southeast.
These eight directional names have been further compounded known as tertiary intercardinal directions, resulting in a total of 32 named points evenly spaced around the compass: north (N), north by east (NbE), north-northeast (NNE), northeast by north (NEbN), northeast (NE), northeast by east (NEbE), east-northeast (ENE), east by north (EbN), east (E), etc.
Usefulness
With the cardinal points thus accurately defined; by convention cartographers draw standard
with north (N) at the top, and east (E) at the right. In turn, maps provide a systematic means to record where places are, and cardinal directions are the foundation of a structure for telling someone how to find those places. Additionally, in most languages this same cardinal-relative mapping is sometimes used in everyday usage when the speaker uses the cardinal directional term instead of the corresponding body relative directional term, even though a relative directional term already exists in that language.
That being said, in cartography north does not have to be at the top. Most maps in medieval Europe, for example, placed east (E) at the top.[Snyder's Medieval Art, 2nd ed. (ed. Luttikhuizen and Verkerk; Prentice Hall, 2006), pp. 226–7.] A few cartographers prefer south-up maps. Many portable GPS-based navigation today can be set to Display device maps either conventionally (N always up, E always right) or with the current instantaneous direction of travel, called the Navigation, always up (and whatever direction is +90° from that to the right).
In Canada, New Zealand, and the United States, each direction of travel along a numbered highway is assigned a cardinal direction. This cardinal direction may not necessarily match the road's orientation at every given location (see Wrong-way concurrency).
Beyond geography
Cardinal directions or
cardinal points may sometimes be extended to include
elevation (
altitude, depth):
north,
south,
east,
west, up and down, or mathematically the six directions of the x-, y-, and z-axes in three-dimensional space.
topographic map include elevation, typically via
.
In astronomy, the cardinal points of an astronomical body as seen in the sky are four points defined by the directions toward which the lie relative to the center of the disk of the object in the sky.
Similarly, when describing the location of one astronomical object relative to another, "north" means closer to the North celestial pole, "east" means at a higher right ascension, "south" means closer to the South celestial pole, and "west" means at a lower right ascension. If one is looking at two stars that are below the North Star, for example, the one that is "east" will actually be further to the left.
Germanic origin of names
During the
Migration Period, the Germanic names for the cardinal directions entered the Romance languages, where they replaced the
Latin names
borealis (or
septentrionalis) with north,
australis (or
meridionalis) with south,
occidentalis with west and
orientalis with east. It is possible that some northern people used the Germanic names for the intermediate directions. Medieval Scandinavian orientation would thus have involved a 45 degree rotation of cardinal directions.
[See e.g. Weibull, Lauritz. De gamle nordbornas väderstrecksbegrepp. Scandia 1/1928; Ekblom, R. Alfred the Great as Geographer. Studia Neophilologica 14/1941-2; Ekblom, R. Den forntida nordiska orientering och Wulfstans resa till Truso. Förnvännen. 33/1938; Sköld, Tryggve. Isländska väderstreck. Scripta Islandica. Isländska sällskapets årsbok 16/1965.]
-
north (Proto-Germanic *norþ-) from the proto-Indo-European * nórto-s 'submerged' from the root * ner- 'left, below, to the left of the rising sun' whence comes the Ancient Greek name Nereus.
[entries 765-66 of the Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch]
-
east ( *aus-t-) from the word for dawn. The proto-Indo-European form is * austo-s from the root * aues- 'shine (red)'.
[entries 86-7 of the Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch] See Ēostre.
-
south ( *sunþ-), derived from proto-Indo-European * sú-n-to-s from the root * seu- 'seethe, boil'.
[entries 914-15 of the Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch] Cognate with this root is the word Sun, thus "the region of the Sun".
-
west ( *wes-t-) from a word for "evening". The proto-Indo-European form is * uestos from the root *ues- 'shine (red)',
[entries 1173 of the Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch] itself a form of * aues-.[entries 86-7 of the Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch] Cognate with the root are the Latin words and and the Ancient Greek Hestia, Hesperus and Hesperides.
Cultural variations
In many regions of the world, prevalent winds change direction seasonally, and consequently many cultures associate specific named
with cardinal and intercardinal directions. For example,
Ancient Greece characterized these winds as
Anemoi.
In pre-modern Europe more generally, between eight and 32 points of the compass – cardinal and intercardinal directions – were given names. These often corresponded to the directional winds of the Mediterranean Sea (for example, southeast was linked to the Sirocco, a wind from the Sahara).
Particular are associated in some traditions with the cardinal points. These are typically "natural colors" of human perception rather than optical .
Many cultures, especially in Asia, include the center as a fifth cardinal point.
Northern Eurasia
,
and North East Asian cultures frequently have traditions associating colors with four or five cardinal points.
Systems with five cardinal points (four directions and the center) include those from pre-modern China, as well as traditional Turkic culture, Tibetan culture and Ainu culture cultures. In Chinese tradition, the five cardinal point system is related to I Ching, the Wu Xing and the five . In traditional Chinese astrology, the zodiacal belt is divided into the four constellation groups corresponding to the directions.
Each direction is often identified with a color, and (at least in China) with a mythological creature of that color. Geographical or ethnic terms may contain the name of the color instead of the name of the corresponding direction.
Examples
East: Green ( "qīng" corresponds to both green and blue); Spring; Wood
- Qingdao (Tsingtao): "Green Island", a city on the east coast of China
- Green Ukraine
South: Red; Summer; Fire
- Red River (Asia): south of China
- Red Ruthenia
- Red Jews: a semi-mythological group of Jews
- Red Croatia
- Red Sea
West: White; Autumn; Metal
- Ak Koyunlu
- Akdeniz, meaning 'White Sea': Mediterranean Sea in Turkish language
- Balts, Baltic languages words containing the stem balt- ("white")
- White Ruthenia
- White Serbia
- White Croatia
North: Black; Winter; Water
- Heilongjiang: "Black Dragon River" province in Northeast China, also the Amur River
- Kara-Khitan Khanate: "Black Khitans" who originated in Northern China
- Karadeniz, literally meaning 'Black Sea': Black Sea in Turkish language
- Black Hungarians
- Black Ruthenia
Center: Yellow; Earth
- Huangshan: "Yellow Mountain" in central China
- Huang He: "Yellow River" in central China
- Golden Horde: "Central Army" of the Mongols
Arabic world
Countries where Arabic is used refer to the cardinal directions as
Ash Shamal (N),
Al Gharb (W),
Ash Sharq (E) and
Al Janoob (S). Additionally,
Al Wusta is used for the center. All five are used for geographic subdivision names (
, states, regions, governorates, provinces, districts or even towns), and some are the origin of some Southern Iberian place names (such as
Algarve, Portugal and Axarquía, Spain).
Native Americans
In
Mesoamerica and
North America, a number of traditional indigenous cosmologies include four cardinal directions and a center. Some may also include "above" and "below" as directions, and therefore focus on a cosmology of seven directions. Among the
Hopi of the Southwestern United States, the four named cardinal directions are not North, South, East and West but are the four directions associated with the places of sunrise and sunset at the winter and summer solstices.
[ ][ ] Each direction may be associated with a color, which can vary widely between nations, but which is usually one of the basic colors found in nature and natural pigments, such as black, red, white, and yellow, with occasional appearances of blue, green, or other hues.
There can be great variety in color symbolism, even among cultures that are close neighbors geographically.
India
Ten
Hindu deities, known as the "Dikpālas", have been recognized in classical Indian scriptures, symbolizing the four cardinal and four intercardinal directions with the additional directions of
zenith and
nadir. Each of the ten directions has its own name in
Sanskrit.
Indigenous Australia
Some indigenous Australians have cardinal directions deeply embedded in their culture. For example, the
Warlpiri people have a cultural philosophy deeply connected to the four cardinal directions
[ Ngurra-kurlu: A way of working with Warlpiri people Pawu-Kurlpurlurnu WJ, Holmes M and Box L. 2008, Desert Knowledge CRC Report 41, Alice Springs] and the Guugu Yimithirr people use cardinal directions rather than relative direction even when indicating the position of an object close to their body. (For more information, see: Cultures without relative directions.)
The precise direction of the cardinal points appears to be important in Aboriginal stone arrangements.
Many aboriginal languages contain words for the usual four cardinal directions, but some contain words for 5 or even 6 cardinal directions.[Orientations of linear stone arrangements in New South Wales Hamacher et al., 2013, Australian Archaeology, 75, 46–54 ]
Unique (non-compound) names of intercardinal directions
In some
, such as Estonian,
Finnish language and
Breton language, the intercardinal directions have names that are not compounds of the names of the cardinal directions (as, for instance,
northeast is compounded from
north and
east). In Estonian, those are
kirre (northeast),
kagu (southeast),
edel (southwest), and
loe (northwest), in Finnish
koillinen (northeast),
kaakko (southeast),
lounas (southwest), and
luode (northwest). In Japanese, there is the interesting situation that native Japanese words (
yamato kotoba, kun readings of kanji) are used for the cardinal directions (such as
minami for 南, south), but borrowed Chinese words (on readings of kanji) are used for intercardinal directions (such as
tō-nan for 東南, southeast, lit. "east-south"). In the
Malay language, adding
laut (sea) to either east (
timur) or west (
barat) results in northeast or northwest, respectively, whereas adding
daya to west (giving
barat daya) results in southwest. Southeast has a special word:
tenggara.
Sanskrit and other Indian languages that borrow from it use the names of the gods associated with each direction: east (Indra), southeast (Agni), south (Yama/Dharma), southwest (Nirrti), west (Varuna), northwest (Vayu), north (Kubera/Heaven) and northeast (Ishana/Shiva). North is associated with the Himalayas and heaven while the south is associated with the underworld or land of the fathers (Pitr loka). The directions are named by adding "disha" to the names of each god or entity: e.g. Indradisha (direction of Indra) or Pitrdisha (direction of the forefathers i.e. south).
The cardinal directions of the Hopi language and the Tewa language spoken by the Hopi-Tewa are related to the places of sunrise and sunset at the solstices, and correspond approximately to the European intercardinal directions.
Non-compass directional systems
Use of the compass directions is common and deeply embedded in European and Chinese culture (see south-pointing chariot). Some other cultures make greater use of other referents, such as toward the sea or toward the mountains (
Hawaii,
Bali), or upstream and downstream (most notably in ancient Egypt, also in the
Yurok language and
Karuk languages).
Lengo language (Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands) has four non-compass directions: landward, seaward, upcoast, and downcoast.
Some languages lack words for body-relative directions such as left/right, and use geographical directions instead.
See also
-
Azimuth
-
Classical compass winds – an early source of cardinal directions
-
Synesthesia
-
Elevation – the mapping information ignored by the cardinal point system
-
Geocaching – an international hobby
-
Geographic Information System (GIS)
-
Latitude and Longitude
-
List of cartographers – famous map makers through history
-
List of international common standards
-
Magnetic deviation – explanation of the slight misalignment of a compass with the Earth's north and south poles
-
Orienteering – an international hobby/sport that depends on knowledge of cardinal directions and how to locate them
-
Relative direction
-
Uses of trigonometry
