the.com/west
a direction so charged with myth that empires chased the sunset until they ran out of land
means the compass direction toward the setting sun, opposite east.
from From Old English "west," rooted in a Proto-Germanic word (cousin to Dutch "west" and German "Westen") and likely tracing back to a Proto-Indo-European root meaning "evening" or "down" — the same family that gives Latin "vesper" (evening). So at its core, "west" simply meant the direction where the day goes down, the place the sun sinks. The romance of frontiers and sunsets came later; the word itself just pointed at dusk.
- manifest dream
- American expansion sold westward as destiny, not theft
- sunset bias
- toward where the sun dies daily, hence endings
- compass twin
- defined only by being opposite east
- cardinal romance
- Westerns made dust and revolvers into national poetry
american wild west — period of frontier expansion in north america, approximately 1865-1890, known for cowboys, gunfights, and settlers
west berlin — isolated democratic enclave surrounded by east germany from 1949-1990, symbol of cold war division
wild west shows — buffalo bill's wild west traveling exhibition that toured from 1883-1913, popularizing frontier mythology