The direction of sunrise. One of the four bearings, fixed by the turning of the earth rather than by agreement.
Old English ēast, from a Proto-Germanic root tracing to an ancient word for dawn and shining.
Its own root is not a direction at all but a shining: the ancient word behind east named the dawn's own light before it named a bearing. East is the one point of the compass that was a brightness first and a direction only after.