核心畫面
Stand behind something big while the wind is blowing — a hill, a ship's hull, an island. In front of the hill the wind hits hard; behind it the air goes quiet. Leeward is that quiet half of the picture, and the arrow that points into it. Nothing here is fixed to a compass: turn the wind around and the leeward side moves to the other side of the same hill. The word always answers one question, which is where the wind is going, not where north is.
想像風正在吹，你站在一個大東西的後面——一座山、一艘船的船身、一個島。迎風的那一面被風打得很硬，後面那一面卻安靜下來…更多收起
想像風正在吹，你站在一個大東西的後面——一座山、一艘船的船身、一個島。迎風的那一面被風打得很硬，後面那一面卻安靜下來。leeward 就是這個畫面裡安靜的那一半，以及指向那一半的箭頭。它跟指南針沒有關係：風一轉向，同一座山的背風面就換到另一邊。這個字回答的永遠是同一個問題——風往哪裡去，而不是北邊在哪裡。From the word’s history
The dictionary builds leeward from lee, the side away from the wind, plus -ward, the ending that means in that direction (as in forward, homeward). So the word says, in its own parts, towards the sheltered side.
字典把 leeward 拆成 lee 加 -ward。lee 本身就是「背著風的那一邊」，-ward 是方向字尾，跟 forward、homeward 的用法一樣。所以這個字的零件直接拼出「朝背風那一側去」，這正好解釋了為什麼它談的一直是相對於風的位置。
Wiktionary entry for leeward, packet source_ref kaikki:3f6f69a190036ae4:564561276 — 'From lee (side away from the wind) + -ward (direction).'