orient
pronunciation
How to pronounce orient in British English:
UK [ˈɔːrient]
How to pronounce orient in American English:
US [ˈɔːrient]
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- Noun:
- the hemisphere that includes Eurasia and Africa and Australia
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- Verb:
- be oriented
- determine one's position with reference to another point
- cause to point
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- Adjective:
- (poetic) eastern
Word Origin
- orient
- orient: English has two separate words orient, but they come ultimately from the same source: Latin orīrī ‘rise’ (from which English also gets abort and origin). Its present participle, oriēns ‘rising’, was used for the direction of the ‘rising sun’, and hence for the ‘east’, and passed into English via Old French as the adjective and noun orient [14].The verb orient [18] was borrowed from French orienter, a derivative of the adjective orient. It originally meant ‘turn to face the east’, and was not used for ‘ascertain or fix the direction of’ until the 19th century. Orientate emerged in the mid-19th century, probably as a back-formation from orientation [19], itself a derivative of orient.=> abort, origin
- Orient (n.)
- c. 1300, "the East" (originally usually meaning what is now called the Middle East), from Old French orient "east" (11c.), from Latin orientem (nominative oriens) "the rising sun, the east, part of the sky where the sun rises," originally "rising" (adj.), present participle of oriri "to rise" (see orchestra). The Orient Express was a train that ran from Paris to Istanbul via Vienna 1883-1961, from the start associated with espionage and intrigue.
- orient (v.)
- c. 1727, originally "to arrange facing east," from French s'orienter "to take one's bearings," literally "to face the east" (also the source of German orientierung), from Old French orient "east," from Latin orientum (see Orient (n.)). Extended meaning "determine bearings" first attested 1842; figurative sense is from 1850. Related: Oriented; orienting.
Example
- 1. He said the brokerage orient will move rather quickly too .
- 2. Orient securities also declined to comment .
- 3. For centuries the name has fuelled western fantasy about the exotic orient .
- 4. Although an extreme example , the row between taj and orient hotels points to a growing trend .
- 5. Orient securities , established in 1998 , operates 57 branches and is indirectly owned by the shanghai government .