septentrion

• septentriones (obsolete)

From Middle English septentrion, septentrione, septemtryones, septemtrioun, from Latin septentriō, septentriōnem (“the northern regions, the north”) directly and through Old French septentrïon, septemtrion, from septentriones (“the seven stars near the north pole”) (called Charles's Wain, or the Great Bear, also those called the Little Bear; properly, the “seven plow oxen”); from septem (“seven”) + triō, originally a plow ox (compare triōnēs, from its plural). Cognate with French septentrion, Middle English septemtrioun.

septentrion (plural septentrions)

1. (obsolete) The north or northern regions.
   • 14th century, Geoffrey Chaucer Boece, Book II

     And ek this Nero governyde by ceptre alle the peples that ben undir the colde sterres that highten the septemtryones. (This is to seyn he governede alle the peples that ben under the partye of the north.)

   • c. 1591–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Third Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act I, scene iv]:

     Thou art as opposite to every good / As the Antipodes are unto us, / Or as the south to the septentrion.

septentrion (comparative more septentrion, superlative most septentrion)

1. (obsolete) Of or relating to the north; northern.
   • 1671, John Milton, “The First Book”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: […] J. M[acock] for John Starkey […], OCLC 228732398, line 31, page 80:

     From cold septentrion blaſts

• septentrion in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913

• pretentions

From Latin septentriō, septentriōnem.

• IPA^(key): /sɛp.tɑ̃.tʁi.jɔ̃/

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septentrion m (plural septentrions)

1. septentrion, north

   Synonym: nord

• septentrional

• “septentrion”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

From French septentrion.

septentrion n (uncountable)

1. north