west by south
1
8.2
- noun
- Specialized
:
oeste-suroeste
- During our hike, we noticed that the trail led west by south toward the valley.
Examples
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The compass pointed west by south, guiding us on our journey.
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West by south-west for 750 leagues to Santo Domingo.
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We sailed west by south to reach the island more quickly.
Synonyms
A compass direction just south of west
Antonyms
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase combines obvious direction words 'west' and 'south' with 'by' to indicate a position toward the south from due west, so a learner can infer it denotes a direction between west and south. However, the navigational convention (that 'by' here means a specific small point offset — one compass point ≈11°15′) is specialized and not fully predictable from the everyday meaning of 'by', so full interpretation requires extra domain knowledge.
Etymology
West by south comes from sailors and mapmakers who divided the compass into small steps between the main directions. It literally means a position just a little south of west, called 'one point' toward south, so today west by south names that exact compass direction.