[ad. L. sōlār-is, f. sōl sun. Cf. F. solaire, Sp. solar, Pg. solar, It. solare.]
A. adj. 1. Of or pertaining to the sun, its course, light, heat, etc.
c. 1450. Holland, Howlat, 31. Under the Cirkill solar thir sauoruss seidis War nurist be dame Natur.
1656. Blount, Glossogr., Solar, of or belonging to the Sun.
1685. Dryden, Thren. August., xii. Our Isle … lay Out of the Solar walk and Heavens high way.
1732. Pope, Ess. Man, I. 102. His soul, proud Science never taught to stray Far as the solar walk, or milky way.
1754. Gray, Progress Poesy, 54. In climes beyond the solar road.
1769. [see DISK 4].
1815. J. Smith, Panorama Sci. & Art, II. 331. In the solar spectrum … heat and light are not present in correspondent degrees.
1863. Neale, Anal. Th. & Nat., 221. Our solar universe subsists, through the opposition of the light-and-heat-receiving circumference to the light-and-heat-imparting centre.
1878. Stewart & Tait, Unseen Univ., ii. § 73. 85. The spots were unmistakably solar phenomena.
b. Of time: Determined by the course of the sun; fixed by observation of the sun.
1594. Blundevil, Exerc., III. I. xlv. (1636), 358. The Month Solar is that space of time which the Sunne spendeth in passing thorow any one of the twelve signes.
1662. Stillingfl., Orig. Sacræ, I. v. § 1. If years be sometimes Lunar, sometimes Solar. Ibid. The Solar moneths were either naturall … or civill.
1704. J. Harris, Lex. Techn., I. s.v., Solar Cycle.
1725. Watts, Logic (1736), 47. A Solar Year of three hundred sixty five Days.
1731–8. Swift, Polite Conv., Introd. 44. To be daily delivered fresh, in every company, for twelve solar Months.
1816. Playfair, Nat. Phil., II. 81. The mean interval of time between the sun’s passing the meridian one day, and his passing it the next, is called a mean solar day.
1840. Penny Cycl., XVII. 450/1. The perpetuity of the solar cycle … is destroyed by the new style.
1855. Lardner, Mus. Sci. & Art, V. 139. The time of 60 swings will be a mean solar minute, and the time of 3600 will be a mean solar hour.
1868. Lockyer, Elem. Astron., § 437. The period that elapses between two successive passages through the vernal equinox … is called the solar, or tropical year.
c. Indicating time in relation to, or by means of, the sun.
1728. Chambers, Cycl., s.v. Dial, To use a Solar, as a Lunar-Dial, i.e. to find the Hour of the Night by a Sun-Dial.
1829. W. Pearson, Pract. Astron., II. 314. Besides two good sidereal clocks, a well furnished observatory ought not to be without a good solar clock.
1875. Knight, Dict. Mech., 2238/2. Solar Chronometer. a sun-dial adapted to show mean instead of solar time.
1900. Jrnl. Sch. Geog. (U.S.), April, 138. Beginning with the Solar Calendar, which is the simpler.
d. Of mechanism, etc.: Operating by means of, or with the aid of, the light or heat of the sun.
1740. [see MICROSCOPE 1 b].
1831. Brewster, Optics, xli. 346. The solar microscope is nothing more than a magic lantern, the light of the sun being used instead of that of a lamp.
1875. Vogel, Chem. Light & Photogr., x. 95. To produce photographic images life size, the magic lantern is not used, but the solar camera.
1875. Knight, Dict. Mech., 2239/1. Solar Engine. Ibid., Solar Telegraph.
1877–81. Voyle & Stevenson, Milit. Dict., Suppl. 36/2. During the late campaign in Afghanistan, Solar Telegraphy was much resorted to.
1884. Knight, Dict. Mech., Suppl. 828/2. Solar Boiler, an apparatus intended to utilize the heat of the sun’s rays.
2. a. Astrol. Subject to the influence of the sun; having a nature or character determined by the sun.
1626. Bacon, Sylva, § 493. They haue denominated some Herbs Solar and some Lunar.
1647. Lilly, Chr. Astrol., lxxiv. 424. The benefit he expects … shall be by the King, a Magistrate,… or by a Solar man of noble disposition.
1700. Dryden, Fables, Cock & Fox, 652. The cock was pleas’d…, And proud beside, as solar people are.
1845. The Theologian, II. 41. When well dignified, the solar man is … splendid and sumptuous.
1877. Encycl. Brit., VII. 294/1. The solar man is grand and generous, the lunar man unsteadfast.
b. Sacred to the sun; connected or associated with the worship of the sun.
1774. J. Bryant, Mythol., II. 66. It was at first only a mark of reference, and betokened a solar animal, specifying the particular Deity to whom it was sacred.
1820. W. Tooke, Lucian, I. 554. The miracle … which Homer relates of the solar-oxen.
1877. W. R. Cooper, Egypt. Obelisks, ii. (1878), 6. In Ra, according to the solar litanies, were combined all the attributes of power and wisdom.
1906. Lockyer, Stonehenge, v. 51. The assumption of Stonehenge having been a solar temple.
c. Representing or symbolizing the sun.
1807. J. Barlow, Columb., III. 531. Meantime the solar king collects from far His martial bands.
1816. G. S. Faber, Orig. Pagan Idol., II. 106. The solari-tauric Mithras is therefore evidently the solar man-bull Taschter.
1889. I. Taylor, Orig. Aryans, vi. 311. Hence few mythologies are altogether free from the loves of solar heroes and dawn maidens.
d. Sprung or descended from the sun.
1788. Sir W. Jones, in Asiatic Researches (1790), II. 136. The time, when the Solar and Lunar dynasties are believed to have become extinct.
1841. Elphinstone, Hist. Ind., I. 259. The lunar race has but forty-eight names in the same period, in which the solar has ninety-five.
† 3. a. Solar earth, metal, gold. (Cf. SOL sb.1 2.) b. Solar metal, a colored metal. Obs.
1649. G. Daniel, Trinarch., Hen. V., cxxix. Wee … need not feare an Asse’s Load Of Solar Earth can force the Gates vnshutt.
1666. J. Smith, Solomon’s Portraiture Old Age, 104. By the help of fire, and possibly some specifick menstruum, as a proper key for that Solar Mineral, it was easily ground to powder.
1800. trans. Lagrange’s Chem., I. 352. The alchemists gave the name of Solar Metals to those which are coloured; and that of Lunar to those which are white.
4. Of light, heat, etc.: Proceeding or emanating from the sun.
1698. Fryer, Acc. E. India & P., 242. We had our Skins flead off of those Parts exposed to the Solar Rays.
1726. Pope, Odyss., XIX. 515. Nor winter’s boreal blast,… Nor solar ray, could pierce the shady bower.
1796. Kirwan, Elem. Min. (ed. 2), I. 125. By concentrated solar heat.
1829. Chapters Phys. Sci., 289. The light derived from such sources differs from the solar light in being accompanied by free radiant caloric.
1871. Tyndall, Fragm. Sci. (1879), I. ii. 41. The solution of iodine offers a means of filtering the solar beam.
b. Warmed by the sun; sunny.
1821. Byron, Sardanap., I. ii. 127. Semiramis … led These our Assyrians to the solar shores Of Ganges.
5. Resembling that of the sun; comparable to the sun. Also fig.
1754. Young, Centaur not Fabulous, Wks. 1762, IV. 260. They only have solar or self-born light who live up to the dignity of their nature.
1834. Mrs. Somerville, Connex. Phys. Sci., xxxvi. 402. Solid bodies of a solar nature.
1839–48. Bailey, Festus, viii. 87. I saw,… Blazing aghast in solar solitude, A panting shadow.
1861. J. Brown, Horæ Subs., Ser. II. 62. He was in this respect a solar man: he drew after him his own firmament of planets.
6. In Arabic grammar, the epithet of the class of consonants before which the l of the article is assimilated; so called because including sh, the initial letter of shems ‘sun.’ Opposed to lunar.
1776. J. Richardson, Arab. Gram., iii. 8. The dentals and linguals are called solar letters.
1855. Davis & Davidson, Arabic Reading Less., p. xxxii. The influence the solar letters exercise upon the article.
1905. N. & Q., 30 Dec., 534/1. One of the fourteen solar letters.
7. Special collocations:
Solar apex, the point in space, situated in the constellation Lyra, toward which the sun is moving; the apex of the solar way; Solar comet (see quot. 1704). Solar compass, (a) a magnetic instrument turning under the influence of the sun’s rays; (b) an instrument used in surveying for easy determination of the meridian. Solar constant (see CONSTANT B, quots. 1869, 1890). Solar eye, fig. (see quot.). Solar eye-piece, a device used in observations of the sun to diminish the light and heat of this (Knight, 1875). Solar ganglion, = solar plexus. Solar lamp, (a) an argand lamp; (b) a grade of electric lamp. Solar myth, a myth resulting from a personification of the sun and describing its course or attributes as those of some god or hero. Solar oil (see quot. 1868). Solar phosphorus, a substance that emits light as the result of exposure to sunlight. Solar plexus, a complex of nerves situated at the pit of the stomach; the epigastric plexus. Solar print, a photograph made by sunlight. Solar reflector (see quot.). Solar spot, a sunspot. Solar stearin, a substance obtained from lard. Solar system, the sun together with all the planets and other bodies connected with it. Solar tables, tables by which the position of the sun may be ascertained. Solar wheel, a wheel in a clock serving to show the apparent daily motion of the sun.
1875. Encycl. Brit., II. 819. Whose various determinations of the *solar apex are shown in fig. 52.
1704. J. Harris, Lex. Techn., I. Argyrocomus, a Silver-coloured Comet differing very little from the *Solar Comet, except that it is of a brighter Silver colour.
1833. T. Brown, White’s Selborne, 227, note. Mr. Mark Watt has invented a very … interesting instrument, which he calls the heliastron, or *solar compass.
1621. Burton, Anat. Mel., III. iv. I. i. We must,… as Ficinus aduiseth us, get vs *solar eyes, spectacles as they that looke on the Sunne.
1741. A. Monro, Anat. Nerves (ed. 3), 57. This great *Solar Ganglion.
1841. Mechanics’ Mag., 16 Jan., 34. The invention of the *‘Solar Lamp’ is due to Mr. Jeremiah Bynner, of Birmingham, by whom it was patented in 1837.
1887. Caroline Hazard, Mem. J. L. Diman, iii. 54. A bright solar lamp shedding its rays around the room.
1870. G. W. Cox, Myth. Aryan Nations, I. iv. 53. Of this vast mass of *solar myths, some have emerged into independent legends, others have furnished the groundwork of whole epics.
1864. Intell. Obs., IV. 91. The more volatile [portion] being set apart as photogen, and the less as *solar oil.
1868. Watts, Dict. Chem., Solar Oil, a name applied in commerce chiefly to the heavier portions of petroleum and shale-oil.
1800. Henry, Epit. Chem. (1808), 184. They yield a *solar phosphorus, called, from its discoverer, Homberg’s phosphorus.
1815. J. Smith, Panorama Sci. & Art, II. 331. The phenomena of the solar phosphori seem to militate against this idea.
1771. Encycl. Brit., I. 254/2. Branches of the *solar or cæliac plexus, formed by the eighth pair and intercostals.
1830. R. Knox, Béclard’s Anat., 346. The union of the nervus vagus of the right side and the solar plexus.
1872. Mivart, Elem. Anat., x. (1879), 404. The solar plexus … behind the stomach.
1889. Anthony’s Photogr. Bulletin, II. 281. The two first *solar prints that were made in New York in 1853 or 1854.
1879. Cassell’s Techn. Educ., II. 275. The *Solar Reflector … enables us to reflect the solar ray into any piece of apparatus or room, suitably situated.
1704. J. Harris, Lex. Techn., I. *Solar Spots. See Spots of the Sun.
1854. Brewster, More Worlds, v. 96. The solar spots, which are now universally admitted to be openings in the luminous stratum.
1882. Encycl. Brit., XIV. 312. A solid, glistening, and crystalline residue, known in commerce as *‘solar stearin,’ which is useful in candle making.
a. 1704. Locke, Elem. Nat. Phil., iii. (1754), 8. Our *solar system consists of the sun, and the planets, and comets moving about it.
1715. trans. Gregory’s Astron. (1726), I. 132. The common Centre … of the Solar System.
1842. Penny Cycl., XXII. 197. We are now to state the relative dimensions of the Solar System in a rough manner.
1812. Woodhouse, Astron., viii. 55. The *Solar Tables give the Sun’s longitude.
1819. Rees’s Cycl., VIII. 3 U, The remedy we have proposed for the inaccuracy of Mr. Ferguson’s *solar and lunar wheels.
8. Comb., as solar-diluvian, -form, -spotted adjs.; solar-microscope vb.
1789. T. Taylor, Proclus (1792), II. 271. When she proceeds from reason to the object of imagination, she naturally obtains a solar-form body.
1803. G. S. Faber, Cabiri, I. 248–9. Ogygi-San is equivalent to the solar-diluvian god.
a. 1849. Poe, Mrs. Browning, Wks. 1864, III. 403. A nature … solar microscoped into poetry.
1881. Nature, XVIII. 237/1. The curve of solar-spotted area.
B. sb.1 Photogr. A solar print.
1889. Anthony’s Photogr. Bulletin, II. 281. Each unbeknown to the other was making life size solars for the American Institute Fair.
