Orient
late Middle English: via Old French from Latin orient- ‘rising or east’, from oriri ‘to rise’.
wiktionary
The noun is derived from Middle English orient, oriente, oryent, oryente, oryentte(“the east direction; eastern horizon or sky; eastern regions of the world, Asia, Orient; eastern edge of the world”), [1] borrowed from Anglo-Norman orient, oriente, and Old French orient(“east direction; Asia, Orient”) (modern French orient), or directly from its etymonLatin oriēns(“the east; daybreak, dawn; sunrise; (participle) rising; appearing; originating”), present active participle of orior(“to get up, rise; to appear, become visible; to be born, come to exist, originate”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₃er-(“to move, stir; to rise, spring”). [2]
The adjective is derived from Middle English orient(“eastern; from Asia or the Orient; brilliant, shining (characteristic of jewels from the Orient)”), from Middle English orient(noun); see above. [3]
The verb is derived from French orienter(“to orientate; to guide; to set to north”) from French orient(noun) (see above) + -er(suffix forming infinitives of first-conjugation verbs). [4]
etymonline
orient (n.)
late 14c., "the direction east; the part of the horizon where the sun first appears," also (now with capital O-) "the eastern regions of the world, eastern countries" (originally vaguely meaning the region east and south of Europe, what is now called the Middle East but also sometimes Egypt and India), 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 origin).
Meaning "a pearl of the first water" is by 1831, short for pearl of the Orient (late 14c.) originally meaning one from the Indian seas. Hence also the meaning "a delicate iridescence, the peculiar luster of a fine pearl" (1755). The Orient Express was a train that ran from Paris to Istanbul via Vienna 1883-1961, from the start it was associated with espionage and intrigue.
orient (v.)
by 1741, "to arrange (something) so as to face 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 "place or arrange in any definite position with reference to the points of the compass" is by 1842; the figurative sense, with reference to new situations or ideas, is by 1850. Related: Oriented; orienting.
