Other forms: climes
A clime is a region considered by its weather, in poetic use. Sunnier climes, foreign climes, warmer climes.
It survives almost only in the plural and almost only in the phrase about going somewhere warmer — sunnier climes is close to a fixed joke. It is the older form of climate, and both come from a Greek word meaning a slope, because the ancients thought of the earth's zones by their tilt to the sun.
1nounclimeA region considered by its weather.
“Many of these plants come from tropical climes and won't survive a frost.”
clime is a region.
Latin clima comes from Greek klima, a slope or zone of latitude, from klinein, to lean. Climate is the same word.
Ancient Greek
κλίμα — (zone of) latitude
Latin
clima
English, today
clime
Built from
Latin clima, from Ancient Greek κλίμα (“(zone of) latitude”) literally “inclination”, from κλίνω (“to slope, incline”). See also climate.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA