Southwest is the direction halfway between south and west. Head southwest, the southwest corner, a southwest wind.
In Britain the prevailing wind comes from the southwest, which is why weather arrives from that direction and why trees on exposed ground lean the other way. A southwest wind blows from the southwest rather than towards it.
1nounsouthwestThe direction halfway between south and west.
“The farm lies a few miles to the southwest of the town.”
southwest is a direction.
Old English suthwest is simply south plus west. All the compass points were named this way.
Old English
sūþwest
Middle English
southwest
English, today
southwest
From Middle English southwest, southewest, from Old English sūþwest and sūþanwestan, equivalent to south + west. Cognate with West Frisian súdwest, Dutch zuidwest, German Südwesten, Danish sydvest, Swedish sydväst.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA