east

Etymology

From Middle English est, from Old English ēast, from Proto-West Germanic *austr, from Proto-Germanic *austrą, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂ews-. Compare West Frisian east, Dutch oost, German Ost, Danish øst, Norwegian Nynorsk aust, Swedish öst.

noun

1. One of the four principal compass points, specifically 90°, conventionally directed to the right on maps; the direction of the rising sun at an equinox.
   Alternative form: (abbreviation) E
   Portsmouth is to the east of Southampton.
   We live in the east of the country.
   In a few hours the birds come to it from all points of the compass – east, west, north, and south […] 1895, Thomas Hardy, Jude the Obscure
2. The eastern region or area; the inhabitants thereof.
   We, in the west, agreed amongst ourselves that a penitentiary should be erected with our half of the money arising as above stated; and the east agreed to improve the country in their vicinity with the other half. (ecclesiastical) In a church: the direction of the altar and chancel; the direction faced by the priest when celebrating ad orientem. 2014, Paul Porwoll, Against All Odds: History of Saint Andrew's Parish Church, Charleston, 1706-2013, WestBow Press: , →ISBN, page 365: A few [Anglican churches in South Carolina, Virginia and Maryland] are oriented other than due [geographic] east—St. Paul's, St. George's, and Prince George's parish churches face northeast and St. Andrew's, southeast. […] Throughout the book I refer directionally to the altar and chancel of St. Andrew's as situated at ecclesiastical east (to avoid overcomplicating matters), not geographical or magnetic southeast. Thus, the altar is located at the east end of the church, and the gallery, at the west. 1855, John Reynolds, My Own Times: Embracing Also the History of My Life, page 271
   However, in Mies' chapel, liturgical east is magnetic west. 2018, Anat Geva, Modernism and American Mid-20th Century Sacred Architecture, Routledge
   The tapestry by Graham Sutherland that occupies the whole wall of the liturgical east and geographic north of the cathedral is recognisable to the point of visual exhaustion. 2019, Sarah Hosking, "Coventry Cathedral", in Prickett Stephen Prickett, Edinburgh Companion to the Bible and the Arts, Edinburgh University Press, page 371

adj

1. Situated or lying in or towards the east; eastward.
2. (meteorology) Blowing (as wind) from the east.
3. Of or pertaining to the east; eastern.
4. From the East; oriental.
5. (ecclesiastical) Designating, or situated in, the liturgical east.
   the east front of a cathedral
   Throughout the book I refer directionally to the altar and chancel of St. Andrew's as situated at ecclesiastical east (to avoid overcomplicating matters), not geographical or magnetic southeast. Thus, the altar is located at the east end of the church, and the gallery, at the west. 2014, Paul Porwoll, Against All Odds: History of Saint Andrew's Parish Church, Charleston, 1706-2013, WestBow Press, page 365
   The tapestry by Graham Sutherland that occupies the whole wall of the liturgical east and geographic north of the cathedral is recognisable […] a huge image of Christ on the [liturgical] east end, filling the entire wall and to be visible through the [liturgical] West Window (Fig. 24.2). 2019, Sarah Hosking, "Coventry Cathedral", in Prickett Stephen Prickett, Edinburgh Companion to the Bible and the Arts, Edinburgh University Press, page 371

adv

1. towards the east; eastwards