Now arch. or poet. Also south land, south-land. [OE. súðland (see SOUTH adv. and LAND sb.), = ON. suðrland, Du. zuidland, G. südland.]
1. A land lying in or towards the south.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Gen. xxiv. 62. He eardode soðlice on þam suðlandum.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XIV. ii. (Bodl. MS.). Men of souþe londes beþ contrarye to men of norþe londes in stature.
1535. Coverdale, Judg. i. 15. Thou hast geuen me a south & drye londe.
1611. Bible, Josh. xv. 19. Thou hast giuen mee a South-land, giue me also springs of water.
1868. Morris, Earthly Par. (1870), II. III. 335. In a strange land and barren, far removed From southlands and their bliss.
1890. Conan Doyle, White Company, viii. Yet the king hath given me a living here in the southlands.
2. The southern part of a country or district; the South; † the southern bank.
c. 1100. O. E. Chron. (MS. D), an. 1052. Hy … heoldan þurh þa brycge aa bi þæm suþlande.
c. 1205. Lay., 2111. Þat suð lond þat æfter him Locres wes icleped. Ibid., 3741. Scottlondes kinge … hehte þane duc stronge heriȝen in suð londe.
1382. Wyclif, Josh. xi. 16. So Josue took al … the south loond, and Gosen.
c. 1470. Henry, Wallace, IX. 1308. Till the south land with glaid hartis thai socht.
a. 1578. Lindesay (Pitscottie), Chron. Scot. (S.T.S.), II. 21. Mony wther wastland men and clans of the southtland.
1872. Tennyson, Gareth & Lynette, 1161. Baken meats and good red wine Of Southland.
1899. Mackail, W. Morris, I. 261. To get back into the Southland without again traversing the wilderness.
3. attrib. or as adj.
c. 1470. Henry, Wallace, I. 442. Thir Southland hors latt se gif I can ride.
a. 1578. Lindesay (Pitscottie), Chron. Scot. (S.T.S.), I. 348. Money southland men … appeillit wther in barras to fight in singular battell.
a. 1670. Spalding, Troub. Chas. I. (1850), II. 337. Quhilk wold give the Southland men aneuche ado.
a. 1724. in Ramsay, Tea-t. Misc. (1876), I. 192. A Southland Jenny … Had for a suitor norland Jonny.
1813. Hogg, Queen’s Wake, Introd. (1814), 9. Her ringlets pale Wide waving in the southland gale.
1819. Scott, Leg. Montrose, iv. Southland though they be, they’ll scarce eat up all the cattle.
1873. Morris, Love Is Enough, 61. Of many such tales … the Southland folk told us.
Hence Southlander, a southerner.
1823. W. Scoresby, Jrnl. Whale-Fishery, p. xxxi. A Southlander … wintered at the colony in the year 1757.
1827. Scott, Two Drovers, ii. ‘May good betide us,’ said the Southlander.
1860. (title), The Southlanders: an account of an expedition to the interior of New Holland.
