köken: From Germanic, from Frankish *bîsi (“covered with clouds”), related to *bisa (“wind from the northeast”), from Proto-Germanic *bī̆s- (“to storm ahead”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeyh₂- (“to be afraid, fear”), see also Proto-Germanic *bibāną (“to shiver”). Compare Walloon bijhe.
La Cigale ayant chanté / Tout l’Eſté, / Se trouva fort dépourvuë / Quand la biſe fut venuë.
köken: From Proto-Semitic *śimaʔl-. Cognate with Hebrew שְׂמֹאל (s'mól, “left”), Akkadian 𒆏 (šumēlum, “left side”), Aramaic סְמָלָא (səmālā) / ܣܡܠܐ (semmālā, “left side”), Ugaritic 𐎌𐎎𐎀𐎍 (šmảl). The north sense derives from the left-hand side facing the sunrise, also attested in Sabaean 𐩠𐩦𐩱𐩣𐩡 (hs²ʾml, “to be northward”).
köken: Inherited from Latin mediam noctem, accusative of nox (“night”). Compare Italian mezzanotte, Aromanian njadzã-noapti, Istriot miezanuotto, Romansch mesanotg. Was the traditional word for "north", but was replaced by nord.
Etimoloji
From Proto-Finnic *pohjainën, equivalent to pohja (“bottom, north”) + -inen. The form pohjoinen was adapted from the Savonian dialects, whence the -oi- (a regular change also seen in e.g. hopioinen < hopea + -inen), and introduced into the standard language by Abraham Poppius in 1818.