n. — Newfoundland & Maritimes, somewhat dated
a freezing, violent wind from the north.
Type: 3. Semantic Change — In Newfoundland (and the Maritimes), a norther is a sudden, violent, cold wind that arrives from the north. OED-3 (s.v. "norther") marks the term as North American, with DAE (s.v. "Norther") listing the earliest American quotation from 1820. EDD (s.v. "Nowther"), however, defines the term as a wind that veers "round to the north". The earliest quotations (below from 1884), as well as in the DNE (from 1895), in clear contrast to the British English meaning, already refer to a wind from the north. The term is Canadian in the Atlantic Canadian context as it is tied to particular locations, referring to different winds. See, e.g. mainland for the same principle.
See also DNE, s.v. "norther" and OED-3, s.v. "norther", which is marked "Chiefly N. Amer.".