East is the direction where the sun comes up. Face east, the east coast, head east.
It is one of the four cardinal points and the only one defined by something you can watch happen. Churches are traditionally built with the altar at the east end. Capitalised, the East means a region — the Middle East, the Far East, and in the twentieth century the Soviet bloc. Note eastern, easterly, eastward; and that an easterly wind blows from the east, not towards it, which trips people up constantly.
1nouneastThe direction where the sun comes up.
“The sun rises in the east.”
east is a compass direction.
Old English east goes back to a Proto-Indo-European root meaning dawn, the same root that gives Easter and the Roman dawn goddess Aurora. East is literally the dawn direction.
Middle English
est
English, today
east
From Middle English est. From Middle English est, from Old English ēast, from Proto-West Germanic austr, from Proto-Germanic austrą, from Proto-Germanic austraz, from Proto-Indo-European h₂éwsteros (“east”). 2
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA