Etymology -- north

Whence blows the northerly: north or south?

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A picture of a moot game

The critically-acclaimed board game MooT consists of tough questions about the nuances of the English language.

Answer: north

Here's the reasoning:

(1) a wind that blows from the north is a northerly and

(2) the word whence means "from which place";

thus, north is the place from which the northerly blows.

Please note that these are draft questions for the board game MooT.
If you spot an error or disagree with anything I've said here,
please let me know and I'll fix it.
(the Mootguy)

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Northerly, schmortherly, didely dortherly,

Where, from whence, ye' blow?

Ye' know ye' come from northern climes,

But, south, yea south, ye' blow.

x-EverPsyPgh___aol.com

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I'm glad you didn't use the "from whence" construction. Shudder.

x-chuck***chuckdavis.ca

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Those of us who live in the Southern Hemisphere know this. We get regular southerlies off the Antarctic Circle.

x- mre&&xtra.co.nz

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This seems to dodge the people's reason for labeling winds by their source. From my understanding people call winds by the direction they come from because more often than not this will determine what kind of weather they are about to get. People naturally care less about where the wind (and consequently weather) are going next.

x-anonymous

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Ack--caught me on the "whence!" My husband teaches Earth Science, so I knew this one!

x-CMarsch786))aol.com

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It might also be pointed out that from whence is redundant.

x-kgrimes--ferrum.edu

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Yay! I finally got one right! Studying Shakespeare pays off!!!

I'm going to have to make the questions harder.

x-jgibson^^^^friend.ly.net

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You could get tricky and say "whither blows" (but that wouldn't be Moot).

x-swhite__zipcon.net

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