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East

From Tibetan Buddhist Encyclopedia
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Compass English East.png

East is a noun, adjective, or adverb indicating direction or geography. East is one of the four cardinal directions or compass points. It is the opposite of west and is perpendicular to north and south.

By convention, the right hand side of a map is east.

To go east using a compass for navigation, set a bearing or azimuth of 90°.

East is the direction toward which the Earth rotates about its axis, and therefore the general direction from which the Sun appears to rise.

During the Cold War, "The East" was sometimes used to refer to the Warsaw Pact and Communist China, along with other Communist nations.

Throughout history, the East has also been used by Europeans in reference to the Orient and Asian societies.

Etymology

The word east is derived from the Proto-Germanic *aus-to- or *austra- "east, toward the sunrise", from Proto-Indo-European language *aus- "to shine," or "dawn". Ēostre, a Germanic goddess of dawn, might have been a personification of both dawn and the cardinal points.

Source

Wikipedia:East