sud versus sur

Question

What is the difference between the two words?
What are their origins?
Why do we say Sudamerica? versus "el sur de California'

Answer 1

With cardinal points you can use either as a prefix: suroeste / sudoeste. Apparently, sur- is more common than sud-.

In isolation, you must write sur or Sur, depending on whether it is a relative reference, or an absolute one (i.e. South Pole). Therefore, it is "El sur de California".

Answer 2

James Santiago said:

No one has specifically mentioned that we also say Suramérica.

True, I forgot to mention that you can also apply both "sur" and "sud" to get "Sudamérica" and "Suramérica" respectively, and the same for "África", and others like "sud/surcoreano", "sud/surasiático", etc.

Answer 3

I'm not 100% but I think sud is used only as a prefix

Answer 4

lazarus1907 said:

With cardinal points you can use either as a prefix: suroeste / sudoeste. Apparently, sur- is more common than sud-.

In isolation, you must write sur or Sur, depending on whether it is a relative reference, or an absolute one (i.e. South Pole). Therefore, it is "El sur de California".

Thank you, Lazarus for a great answer, and Rosalind for the question. I have often wondered this myself, but always brushed it up to different strokes for different folks (different vocabulary for different people

Answer 5

No one has specifically mentioned that we also say Suramérica.