A vocabulary of landscape — a landscape of words
1367 entries
notus
Notus is the Greek name for the south wind, one of the four principal winds alongside Boreas from the north, Eurus from the east, and Zephyrus from the west. In Greek weather lore Notus arrived at the end of summer bringing heat, storm, and the rain that ended the dry season, and it was the wind that damaged crops standing in the field.
Etymology
The word is Greek for the south wind and it appears to be related to a word for moisture or dampness, which fits what it brought. The Romans took the whole set over and used their own names alongside the Greek ones, so the same wind is Auster in Latin, which is the source of the name Australia, given for a supposed southern land long before anyone had seen it.