adv., etc. [See WEST adv. and SOUTH-WEST. Cf. MLG. westsûtwest, Du. -zuid-, G. -süd-.] In or from the direction situated midway between west and south-west. Also as sb. and adj.
a. adv. 14[?]. Sailing Directions (Hakl. Soc., 1889), 11. It flowith west southwest. Ibid., 13. Yif … the wynde be west south west.
c. 1440. Pallad. on Husb., III. 470. And west southwest [L. in fauonium] hem for to order best is.
1513. Sir E. Howard, in Ellis, Orig. Lett., Ser. II. I. 214. On mondey the wynd cam west sowth west.
1584. R. Norman, trans. Safegard of Sailers, 21 b. The floud sets east northeast, and the ebbe west southwest.
1698. Hennepin, New Discov. Amer., I. 78. Steering our Course West-South-West, with a favourable Wind.
1760. R. Rogers, Jrnls. (1769), 197. We … kept the following courses: west-south-west two miles, west-north-west three miles.
1833–4. J. Phillips, Geol., in Encycl. Metrop. (1845), VI. 544/1. Less certain and continuous fissures passing nearly East North-East and West South-West.
b. adj. 1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XI. iii. (1495), 386. The weste Southweste wynde hyghte Zephirus.
14[?]. Sailing Directions (Hakl. Soc., 1889), 14. All the havens be full at a west south west moone.
a. 1500. Leland, Itin. (1764), III. 12. An Hospital of S. John yet stonding at the West South West End of the Town.
1611. Cotgr., Vent d’ aval, a West South-west wind.
1632. Lithgow, Trav., III. 123. The West South west end of this once Regall Towne.
c. sb. 1555. Eden, Decades (Arb.), 77. The shores bended … sumetyme towarde the Weste and westesouthwest.
a. 1592. Greene & Lodge, Looking Gl. (1598), E 1. Now the wind doth serue, And sweetly blowes a gale at West, Southwest.
1837. W. Irving, Capt. Bonneville, I. iii. 61. One of these branches rises in the west south-west.
1839. De la Beche, Rep. Geol. Cornwall, etc., i. 8. On the west-south-west of the same district.
Hence West-south-westerly a.
1881. W. Powell, in Proc. R. Geog. Soc. (N. S.), III. 92. A long straight piece of coast, running in a west-south-westerly direction.
