occidentales

Occidentales is a term used in Spanish and Portuguese to refer to things related to the West or to Western countries, and can function as a plural noun meaning Westerners. In broader linguistic and historical contexts, similar forms appear in other Romance languages and in English, where “occident” or “the Occident” denotes the Western world.

Etymology and sense: the word derives from Latin occidens, meaning the setting, west, from the verb occidere, to fall or set. The related adjective occid- entalis (occidentalis) is used in nomenclature to describe Western origins, characteristics, or distribution. In everyday speech, occidentales often denotes people from Western countries, typically Europe and the Americas, though usage varies by region and context.

Cultural and scholarly usage: in cultural and historical discourse, Occidental versus Oriental has been used to distinguish Western from non-Western societies. Modern scholarship frequently critiques this dichotomy as imprecise or Eurocentric, favoring more specific regional or thematic descriptors. The term remains in use in some academic, political, and media contexts to discuss Western institutions, values, or phenomena, while other contexts prefer explicit geographic or cultural terms.

Scientific and taxonomic use: in biology and related fields, occidentalis (the masculine form) or occidentale (the feminine form) is a Latin adjective employed in species names to indicate a western distribution or origin. In binomial nomenclature, the epithet can reflect geography, but its exact form depends on the genus’ grammatical gender.

See also: Occident, Orient, Occidentalism.