2488: Mayan Directions & Maize Oct 4, 2021

The Mayans used a system where the four cardinal directions represented by the four colors of maize. This translated as white for north, black for west, yellow for south, and red for east. Inscriptions from around AD 600 use the names of the directions as they correspond to the colors, which in addition to the agricultural, culinary, and indeed major religious significance to the crop, a genericized symbolic blend of those as used for giving people directions.

2181: Names for Cardinal Directions Dec 4, 2020

At this point the cardinal directions in English—North, East, South, and West—are basically stripped of their original meanings, but unsurprisingly they are related to the Sun. Most directly so is with 'South' thought to come from the Proto-Germanic *sunthaz, understood to mean literally 'sun-side', which being so far north geographically would mean the Sun is usually seen towards the South. 'North' is uncertain, but it either comes from the Proto-Indo-European root *h₁ner- (inner, under) or the *ner- (left, or also 'below) and if the second is true, then it would likely be as a reference to being on the left as the Sun is rising. 'East' and 'West' both come through a different sort of pattern: Roman deities, kind of. While not necessarily directly from these sources, 'east' is related to the Latin 'aura' or Greek αὔρα (auos) meaning 'dawn', and a minor deity. Likewise 'west' is related to the Latin 'vesper', the evening star, and a minor deity.