Orient

Orient is a term meaning "the east". It is from the Latin word oriens. Ancient Rome sometimes used it to mean the area east of Rome. Later the dividing line moved farther east, to the Adriatic or the Aegean or the Indus River. This term is in contrast to the "Occident", which is a term meaning "the west".

Edward Said used the term in his book Orientalism (1978). He used it to mean an area including most of present-day North Africa and Middle Eastern countries.