Careful Words

south (n.)

south (adv.)

south (adj.)

He could distinguish and divide

A hair 'twixt south and southwest side.

Samuel Butler (1600-1680): Hudibras. Part i. Canto i. Line 67.

Dance and Provençal song and sunburnt mirth!

Oh for a beaker full of the warm South,

Full of the true, the blushful Hippocrene!

With beaded bubbles winking at the brim,

And purple-stainèd mouth.

John Keats (1795-1821): Ode to a Nightingale.

  I have heard something said about allegiance to the South. I know no South, no North, no East, no West, to which I owe any allegiance.

Henry Clay (1777-1852): Speech, 1848.