English to French translation

Austral

May 13, 2009

I’m currently working on a document about security in Africa, and particularly in Southern Africa, which is translated as Afrique australe in French. Austral dates back to 1372 and comes from Auster, which, in Roman mythology, is the name of the Southern wind. This is also where the name Australia (Terra Australis) comes from.

In Roman mythology, the other winds are: Aquilo (North), Eurus (East) and Favonius (West). In Greek mythology, they are called Notus (South), Boreas (North), Eurus (East) and Zephyrus (West).

Windmill photo by Today is a good day

Comments

Septentrional is an interesting one too.

Interesting stuff! Aquilo has practically disappeared, except in the archaic French word aquilon. Zephyrus has given us zéphyr.

"Tout vous est aquilon, tout me semble zéphyr"...

Then we have Boreas - from where we get "boréal" as in the aurora (borealis).

But what has become of the others ? Do they survive in any (even vestigial) form?

I agree with Lesley: septentrion and septentrional are splendid.
Something to do with a constellation, according to thefreedictionary.com

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