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by VSPrasad on January 25th, 2008
Everything went south:
From the convention of having South be on the bottom of maps. To go south is to go downward, including circumstances, relationships, and stock prices.
http://www.phrases.org.uk/bulletin_board/55/messages/577.html
If a project has gone south, it's "in the toilet," "gone bust".
into a state of decline or ruin. Causes the sluggish economy to go south -- G. F. Will.
go south (also head south, take a turn south) 1 v phr by 1940s To disappear; fal by or as if by vanishing.... 2 v phr by 1925 To abscond with money, loot, etc. ... 3 v phr underworld by 1950 To cheat, esp to cheat at cards.... 4 v phr by 1980s To lessen; diminish.... [probably fr the notion of disappearing _south of the border_, to escape legal pursuit and responsibility; probably reinforced by the widespread belief that the soul after death journeys to the south, attested in American Colonial writing fr the middle 1770s; _GTT_, "Gone to Texas, absconded," is found by 1839]
From _Dictionary of American Slang, Third Edition_ (1995) by Robert L. Chapman
I've read that this is due to the downward slope of a badly performing stock or profit return as shown on a performance graph. The downward slope is reckoned to be similar to the southerly direction on a map, ie at the bottom. It doesn't represent any supposed worse aspect of the world 'down south', just the direction.
North American pilots also have a variation on this expression --- it's 'gone west' When we have a meeting of pilots we will often start the meeting with a toast to those of us who have "gone west". We face the west and drink to those who have died. West, in this case, refers to the place the sun sets -- extinguishes -- the metaphor is clear.
http://www.phrases.org.uk/bulletin_board/26/messages/658.html
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