Levʹant and Ponent Winds

The east wind is the Levʹant, 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.

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.