SYNONYMY NOTE: irritable implies quick excitability to annoyance or anger, usually resulting from emotional tension, restlessness, physical indisposition, etc.; , irascible, choleric are applied to persons who are hot-tempered and can be roused to a fit of anger at the slightest irritation; , splenetic suggests a peevish moroseness in one quick to ...
Quick Answer. A map direction symbol is called a compass rose, and a simple compass rose symbol may only depict the four cardinal directions of north, east, west and south. A compass rose has been used on charts, atlases and maps by navigators since the 14th century. A more detailed compass rose can show many other directions.
Originally, many compasses were marked only as to the direction of magnetic north, or to the four cardinal points (north, south, east, west). Later, these were divided, in China into 24, and in Europe into 32 equally spaced points around the compass card. For a table of the thirty-two points, see compass points.