Meaning

adjective in or characteristic of a region of the United States south of (approximately) the Mason-Dixon line

adjective situated in or oriented toward the south

adjective situated in or coming from regions of the south

originFrom 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…

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0