North northwest

[nq:1]Is it ok to say north northwest to refer to the direction?[/nq]
Yes, but with a hyphen, like this: north-northwest.
[nq:1]Also, is it ok to say west westsouth?[/nq]
No.
The sixteen compass rose directions are:
North
North-northeast
Northeast
East-northeast
East
East-southeast
Southeast
South-southeast
South
South-southwest
Southwest

} Hi, everyone,
Hi back at you.
} Is it ok to say north northwest to refer to the direction?

Yes. Some might put a hyphen where you have a space.

} Also, } is it ok to say west westsouth? Thanks a lot!
No. Rather say west-southwest.
There are 32 points to the compass (11 1/4 degrees each), boxed thus:

N NbNE NNE NEbN NE NEbE ENE EbNE E EbSE ESE SEbE SE SE

[nq:1]Is it ok to say north northwest to refer to the direction?[/nq]
Yes, that is the conventional name of the compass point halfway between north and northwest. However, it is usually hyphenated: north-northwest.
Note that "north by northwest", of Hitchcock fame, is the compass point halfway between north and north-northwest.
[nq:1]Also, is it ok to say west westsouth?[/nq]
No, t

--

Jens Brix Christiansen filted:
[nq:2]Is it ok to say north northwest to refer to the direction?[/nq]
[nq:1]Yes, that is the conventional name of the compass point halfway between north and northwest. However, it is usually hyphenated: north-northwest. Note that "north by northwest", of Hitchcock fame, is the compass point halfway between north and north-northwest.[/nq]
Note also that i

[nq:1]Jens Brix Christiansen filted:[/nq]
[nq:2]Note that "north by northwest", of Hitchcock fame, is the compass point halfway between north and north-northwest.[/nq]
[nq:1]Note also that in the title of the Hitchcock film, "Northwest" is the name of an airline on which Roger Thorndyke flies, roughly, north..r[/nq]
Very roughly; from Chicago to Rapid City (I think that's the destinati

[nq:1]Very roughly; from Chicago to Rapid City (I think that's the destination) is much closer to west than to north. ... delineated N by NW on a compass - it is an improbable direction." Don't trust your navigating to this guy.[/nq]
BTW, for historians of vowel shifts, and I've posted about this before: there's a scene in North by Northwest in Chicago's Union Station, in which you clearly hea

[nq:1]} Hi, everyone, Hi back at you. } Is it ok to say north northwest to refer to the direction? ... consistent, but the other is terser without ambiguity. On what basis do you claim one "right" and the other "wrong"?[/nq]
Cheers - Ian
(Sorry - replied by email by mistake!)

[nq:1]Is the 'Northwest' of the title also perhaps a residual reference to the older sense of 'Northwest' in AmE geography, in which Illinois and Minnesota and such were the Northwest? Probably not.[/nq]
The usual wisdom is that it paraphrases Hamlet, also trying to convince people of his sanity: "I am but mad north-northwest; when the wind is southerly I know a hawk from a handsaw". Other plo

[nq:2]Is the 'Northwest' of the title also perhaps a residual ... Illinois and Minnesota and such were the Northwest? Probably not.[/nq]
[nq:1]The usual wisdom is that it paraphrases Hamlet, also trying to convince people of his sanity: "I am but mad north-northwest; when the wind is southerly I know a hawk from a handsaw". Other plot trivia may fit, but are probably contrived to do so.[/nq]