Southern means belonging to the warmer half of the world below the middle. Southern Europe, the southern sky, a southern accent.
The southern hemisphere has its seasons reversed and a different set of stars — the Southern Cross replaces the Pole Star, and there is no bright southern pole star at all. In America the Southern accent with a capital means the states of the old South. Note the -ern ending on all four directions.
1adjectivesouthernBelonging to the south.
“Oranges and lemons grow well in the warm southern parts of Spain.”
southern is a direction.
Old English sutherne comes from suth, south, plus the -erne ending used for all four directions.
Proto-Indo-European
*sh₂un-
Proto-Germanic
*sunþrōnijaz — southern
Old English
sūþerne — southern, southerly, coming from the south; of southern make
Middle English
southerne
English, today
southern
Built from
From Middle English southerne, sothern, sutherne, from Old English sūþerne (“southern, southerly, coming from the south; of southern make”), from Proto-Germanic sunþrōnijaz (“southern”), from Proto-Indo-European sh₂un-, sh₂wen-, r/n-stem alternation of sóh₂wl̥ (“sun”). Cognate with Scots southron, sudron (“southern”), Old Frisian sūthern, sūdern (“southern”), Middle Low German sūdern (“southern”), Middle High German sundern (“southern”), Icelandic suðrænn (“southern, tropical”). by surface analysis, south + -ern.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA