meridionaladj.n.
/mᵻˈrɪdɪənl/, U.S. /məˈrɪdiən(ə)l/ A. adj.† 2.
1.
a. Of or relating to the south; situated in or (occasionally) facing towards the south; southern, southerly. In modern use often: spec. of or relating to southern Europe, esp. the south of France.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the earth > direction > cardinal points > South > [adjective]
southernOE
southwardOE
meridionalc1386
austral1398
southly1440
meridian?a1475
meridialc1540
southerly1556
southernly1591
southwardlyc1612
austrian1634
austrine1635
south'ard1671
fore-south1686
southwards1838
c1386 Almanac (1812) 50 If he wyll have þe meridional altitude in an oþer place from Oxenforth, lat hym se wheþer þat place be more atrionall or meridionall.
?a1425 (c1400) Mandeville's Trav. (Titus C.xvi) (1919) 103 Ethiope is departed in..the est partie & in the meridionall partie.
?1520 A. Barclay tr. Sallust Cron. Warre agaynst Iugurth xxx. f. 41v Ye meridyonall part of the countrey.
c1550 Complaynt Scotl. (1979) vi. 38 The pole antartic austral or meridional.
1624 H. Wotton Elements Archit. i. 8 All Offices that require heat, as Kitchins, Stillatories, Stoues..or the like, would be Meridionall.
1653 R. Saunders Physiognomie ii. 169 The Meridional people are for the most part black and curled.
1703 R. Neve City & Countrey Purchaser 36 Kitchins..ought to be placed in the Meridional part of the Building.
1830 Fraser's Mag. 1 594 We must not forget that Adosinda and Roderick are meridional Europeans.
1924 A. Huxley Little Mexican 58 Two expatriated Hindus and a couple of swarthy meridional Frenchmen, who might pass at a pinch as the Aryan compatriots of these dark Dravidians.
1956 A. Wilson Anglo-Saxon Attitudes i. iii. 68 Marie Hélène's tall unbending figure suggested the funereal, shuttered cool of a meridional house in the glare of the summer's heat.
1988 A. Danto Encounters & Reflections (1991) 200 A place of clear light, clean planes, meridional flora—and emblematic pools.
b. spec. Of a person's temperament, a character trait, etc.: characteristic or typical of an inhabitant of southern Europe, esp. of the south of France.
ΘΚΠ
the world > people > nations > native or inhabitant of Europe > [adjective] > southern
meridional1821
1821 Ld. Byron Let. 20 Sept. (1978) VIII. 217 I should like to have seen Augusta's face, with an Etruscan Epistle—& all it's Meridional style of ‘issimas’ and other superlatives—before her.
1847 Blackwood's Edinb. Mag. 62 418 His voice..retained..‘a slight meridional accent’.
1860 J. L. Motley Hist. United Netherlands I. v. 138 A dark, meridional physiognomy..such was the Prince of Parma.
1905 Q. Rev. July 11 That there is such a thing as Latin rhetoric, which corresponds now, as in every preceding age, to the temperament best summed up in the word ‘meridional’.
1976 M. Engel Bear i. 15 She was meridional in temperament, if not in ancestry.
1995 A. M. Browne Long Sunset ix. 91 That afternoon I was greeted by a stout individual with a rolling meridional accent.
a. Of or relating to noon or the sun's position at this time; = meridian adj. 1a. Obsolete.
ΘΚΠ
the world > time > day and night > day or daytime > noon or midday > [adjective] > relating to the sun at midday
meridionalc1386
meridianc1400
the world > time > day and night > day or daytime > noon or midday > [adjective]
meridianc1400
meridialc1540
noontide1595
meridional1608
noondaya1651
full tide1702
midnoon1805
c1386 Almanac (1812) 50 As towchyng þe altitudes of þe son..in oþer places fro Oxenforth..If he wyll have þe meridional altitude, [etc.].
c1395 G. Chaucer Squire's Tale 263 Phebus hath laft the angle meridional.
?a1475 (?a1425) tr. R. Higden Polychron. (Harl. 2261) (1879) VII. 75 The sonne beynge in the centre meridionalle.
1608 A. Willet Hexapla in Exodum 245 The sun ascendeth vnto the meridianall point.
1673 R. Allestree Ladies Calling i. v. §39 Are God's safeguards to be only meridional, to shine out only with the noon-day sun?
1839 Fraser's Mag. 19 469 All my troubles, cares, anxieties, perplexities—matutinal, meridional, and vespertinal.
1867 W. H. Smyth & E. Belcher Sailor's Word-bk. 620 Shoot the sun, To, to take its meridional altitude.
b. figurative. = meridian adj. 1c. Obsolete.
ΘΚΠ
the world > physical sensation > sleeping and waking > sleep > [noun] > an instance or period of > short or light > siesta
undermeal1426
meridiana1450
meridiation1623
meridionala1631
siesta1655
zest1706
a1631 J. Donne Serm. (1953) VI. 80 The Meridionall brightnesse, the glorious noon, and heighth, is to be a Christian.
1762 P. Murdoch tr. A. F. Büsching New Syst. Geogr. III. 273 So large were the demesnes of this abbey, when in its meridional glory.
3.
a. Astronomy and Geography. Of, relating to, or aligned with a meridian; running north–south. Of a wind: blowing along the line of a meridian.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the earth > geodetic references > [adjective] > meridian
meridiana1450
meridional1555
meridial1653
a1450 ( G. Chaucer Treat. Astrolabe ii. §3. 77 Whan the sonne is nigh the meridional lyne.
1555 R. Eden tr. Peter Martyr of Angleria Decades of Newe Worlde f. 246v We..sayled from thense .lxxxx. degrees in lengthe meridionale.
1669 S. Sturmy Mariners Mag. iv. vii. 166 This Table of Latitudes, or Meridional Parts.
1709 G. Berkeley Ess. New Theory of Vision §74. 81 When the Moon is view'd..in the Meridional Position.
1859 C. Darwin Origin of Species xii. 407 The influence of the modern Glacial period, which I am fully convinced simultaneously affected the whole world, or at least great meridional belts.
1882 Knowledge No. 19. 399/2 Stars whose places were already determined by the use of their great meridional instrument.
1900 Geogr. Jrnl. 15 540 The great meridianal systems, e.g. the Urals and the Rocky mountains.
1925 J. Joly Surface-hist. Earth viii. 140 The long rift valley of South Australia, mainly meridional in direction.
1937 Astrophysica Norvegica 2 323 Each of them would have a meridional component towards the equator at the ground and towards the poles in greater heights.
1982 R. G. Barry & R. J. Chorley Atmosphere, Weather & Climate (ed. 4) iii. 137 (caption) Three-cell model of the northern hemisphere meridional circulation.
b. Chiefly Zoology. Designating a marking, structure, etc., on a curved body that lies in a plane with its axis. Cf. meridian n. 3c.
ΘΚΠ
the world > space > shape > curvature > roundness > [adjective] > of markings that lie in plane with axis of a round body
meridional1658
1658 Sir T. Browne Garden of Cyrus iv, in Hydriotaphia: Urne-buriall 169 In the circinations and sphærical rounds of Onyons,..the circles of the Orbes are ofttimes larger, and the meridionall lines stand wider upon one side then the other.
1869 H. A. Nicholson Zool. 111 Eight meridional bands, or ‘ctenophores’, bearing the comb-like fringes.
1881 W. B. Carpenter Microscope (ed. 6) xi. 507 Along one side of this body is a meridional groove, resembling that of a peach.
1899 T. C. Allbutt et al. Syst. Med. VI. 209 Those [anastomoses] between the anterior and the posterior interventricular branch near the apex of the heart, forming a vertical or meridional circle.
1940 T. J. Parker & W. A. Haswell Text-bk. Zool. (ed. 6) I. 200 Each of the ultimate branches or adradial canals opens into a meridional canal.., which extends upwards and downwards beneath the corresponding swimming-plate.
1958 Engineering 21 Mar. 376/1 Flow surfaces of revolution defined by meridional streamlines.
1987 Nature 2 July 61/1 The presence of possibly eight meridianal comb rows..and paired retractable tentacles suggested that Paleoctenophora brasseli was closely comparable to extant cydippids.
B. n.† 1. The south. Obsolete.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the earth > direction > cardinal points > South > [noun]
southlandOE
southc1175
southc1300
southwarda1350
meridianc1386
middaya1425
meridional1550
southwards?1574
south'ard1624
1550 N. Smith tr. Herodian Hist. sig. Ggijv The heauen hathe foure Regions. That is to saye the Oriente, Occidente, Meridionall and Septentrion.
1559 D. Lindsay Test. Papyngo 750 in Wks. (1931) I. 78 Thow knawis the vulgare pepyllis Iugement, Quhare thow transcurrit the hote Meridionall.
2. A native or inhabitant of the south; (in modern use spec.) a native or inhabitant of southern Europe, esp. the south of France.
ΘΚΠ
the world > people > nations > native or inhabitant of Europe > French nation > [noun] > native or inhabitant of France > parts of
Normanc1275
Picardc1330
Gascona1387
Britonerc1390
Bretona1400
Normanda1400
Poitevin1483
Angevin1511
Navarrois1523
Savoyan1583
Armorican1593
Savoyard1595
meridional1605
Picardin1616
artesian1629
Biscayana1640
Limousin1653
Lyonnais1653
Languedocian1658
Biscayner1664
Navarrese1686
Provençale1730
Lorrainer1743
Navarran1770
Vendean1796
Tourangeau1883
Tourangeois1958
1605 J. Sylvester tr. G. de S. Du Bartas Deuine Weekes & Wks. i. iii. 82 The Sea..Flowes againe: and then againe it Falls When she doth light th' other Meridianalls.
1621 J. Molle tr. P. Camerarius Liuing Libr. iii. xiii. 189 The Meridionalls or Southern inhabitants.
1675 G. R. tr. A. Le Grand Man without Passion 165 The Meridionals who banish formal courts and reveling from their assemblies, despise not gay cloathing.
1878 Catholic World Apr. 32/1 A part, and a great part, of our votes and forces is subordinate to the votes and forces of the meridionals.
1898 J. E. C. Bodley France iii. ii. 126 The hero of the trial was..a characteristic Meridional.
1899 V. M. Crawford Stud. Foreign Lit. 50 Daudet was able to paint a real sober picture of the Meridional in Numa Roumestan.
1945 A. Huxley Let. 10 Aug. (1969) 532 Light, rapid generalizations and airy thoughts more fitted for the conversation he loved and was, being a méridional, in a sense born to.
1972 Guardian 19 July 2/8 He is a Meridional who has no links with the Nord and takes little part in local life.
Compounds
meridional line n. [compare post-classical Latin linea meridionalis (1267, 1326 in British sources)] †(a) the south line on an astrolabe (obsolete); (b) = meridian n. 2b, 3a; a north–south line.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the earth > geodetic references > [noun] > meridian
meridional linec1392
meridianc1400
midday line?a1439
meridian circlec1550
meridian line1559
midday circle1559
c1392 Equatorie of Planetis 38 (MED) Þe middel of thy thred shal kerue the meridional lyne.
a1450 ( G. Chaucer Treat. Astrolabe i. §4. 6 The whiche lyne, fro the forseide ring unto the centre of the large hool amidde, is clepid the south lyne, or ellis the lyne meridional.
a1450 ( G. Chaucer Treat. Astrolabe ii. §3. 77 Whan the sonne is nygh the meridional lyne.
1796 J. Morse Amer. Universal Geogr. (new ed.) I. 590 Mr. Ellicott drew a true meridional line by celestial observation.
1834 Nat. Philos. (Libr. Useful Knowl.) III. Astron. i. 15 They are called meridians, or meridional lines, and the equator bisects all the meridians.
1869 J. B. Ellis Sights & Secrets National Capital 40 After drawing a meridional line..through the site selected for the Capitol, he designed two sets of streets crossing each other at right angles.
1910 Encycl. Brit. I. 320/2 Associated with these great valleys are a number of volcanic peaks, the greatest of which occur on a meridional line east of the eastern trough.
1991 P. Heselton Elem. Earth Mysteries (BNC) 18 Francis J. Bennett was investigating a parallel system of meridional (north–south) lines in Kent, on which both megalithic sites and churches fell.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2001; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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adj.n.c1386