Brewer's: Levant and Ponent Winds

The east wind is the Levant, and the west wind the Ponent. The former is from levo, to rise (sunrise), and the latter from pono, to set (sunset).

“Forth rush the Levant and the Ponent winds.”

Milton: Paradise Lost, x. 704.

Levant, the region, strictly speaking, means the eastern shore of the Mediterranean; but is often applied to the whole East.

Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894
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