Forms: 4 turnisoll, 4–8 turnesole, (5–6 turne-, 7 turnsoyle, turn(e)soil(e), 6 turnesoll, -sell, -sall, -saule, turnsale, sowell, tornsole, -sell, -salle, tornesall(e, -sol(e, -solt, tournesoll, -sole, -soule, 6–7 turnsall, 7 -soll, -soule, 7–8 turnesol, 8 tournsol, 6–9 turnsol, 5– turnsole. [a. F. tournesol (14th c. in Littré), prob. ad. older Prov. tournasol (now tournosol) = Sp. and Pg. tornasol, It. tornasole, f. Romanic tornare to TURN + L. sōl the sun.
In F., as in Eng., first recorded as the name of the coloring matter derived from one of the plants bearing the name. In mod. Sp., Pg., and It. chiefly used in sense 2 b.]
1. A violet-blue or purple coloring matter, obtained from the plant Crozophora tinctoria (see 2 a), formerly much used for coloring jellies, confectionery, wines, etc., and later as a pigment. (See also quots. 1712 and 1830.)
Coarse linen rags are steeped in the juice, and then dried and exposed in vats over an ammoniacal mixture; hence the designation † turnsole in rags = F. tournesol en drapeau.
1375. Exch. Rolls Scotl., II. 507. Computat per empcionem de iij libris alkynet, j libra de turnisoll, et j libra de savndre.
1392. Earl Derby’s Exp. (Camden), 154. Pro iij lb. turnesole ad xiiij d.
c. 1440. Anc. Cookery, in Househ. Ord. (1790), 437. Colour hit with turnesole, or with ynde, or with alkenet, or saunders, or saffron.
1513. Bk. Keruynge, in Babees Bk. (1868), 268. Tornsole is holsome for reed wyne colourynge.
1573. Art of Limming, 4. To make azure and bize sadder, take good blewe tournesoll and wet it in gumme water.
1606. Peacham, Art of Drawing, I. xxiii. (1612), 86. The sorts of Red are these. Vermilion. Synaper lake…. Red lead. Roset. Turnsoile [etc.]. Ibid., 88. Turnesoile is made of old linnen ragges died:… it is good to shadow carnations, and all yealowes.
1615. Markham, Eng. Housew., II. ii. 70. If you will haue [the jelly] coloured, then put in a little Tournesall.
1616–61. Holyday, Persius, 308. The armorists indeed slight your common purple made of grocer’s turnesol, a mixture of vermilion and blew bysse, or cynnaber, or the colour of violets.
1688. [see 2 a].
1712. trans. Pomet’s Hist. Drugs, v. 93/2. Tornesol or Turnsole in Rags, is made of Linnen Cloth dyed at Constantinople, with Cocheneal and some Acids. The Cotton Turnsole, call’d Portugal or Spanish Wool, is made from Cotton that is … dyed in Spain or Portugal with Mestich Cochineal. Both Sorts are made use of to colour Liquors, Fruits and Gellies. There is another Kind of Turnsole that is made with Rags dipp’d in a red Tincture, prepar’d with the Juice of the Berry, and a little acid Liquor.
1783. Phil. Trans., LXXIII. 39. Acids possess the property of changing the juice of turnsol, or infusion of litmus, red.
1830. Lindley, Nat. Syst. Bot., 103. The preparation called Turnsol,… chiefly obtained from Crozophora (Croton) tinctoria, is to be procured equally abundantly from many other plants of the order [Euphorbiaceæ].
1866. Treas. Bot., 352/1. C[rozophora] tinctoria … is cultivated in the South of France for the sake of a dye which is obtained from it. This dye is called Turnsole, and is obtained by grinding the plants … to a pulp in a mill, when they yield about half their weight of a dark green coloured Juice, which becomes purple by exposure to the air or under the influence of ammonia.
fig. 1599. Broughton’s Lett., xi. 38. Coloured with the Turnsalue of your Phantasticall braine.
b. transf. = LITUS.
So F. tournesol and tournesol en pain.
1839. Ure, Dict. Arts, 53. The lichen which produces archil is subjected to another preparation, to make turnsole (litmus). This article is made in Holland.
1842. Brande, Dict. Sc., etc., 671/1. Litmus … a blue pigment obtained from the lichen Rocella … it is often called turnsol, and yields the dye called archil.
2. A plant of which the flowers or leaves turn so as to follow the sun; a heliotrope. a. An annual euphorbiaceous plant, Crozophora tinctoria, the Small Tornesol of Lyte’s Herbal, found wild by the Mediterranean, and cultivated in the south of France for its coloring juice (see 1).
In earlier botanical use called Croton tinctorium (or -ius), Ricinoides (Tournefort), and (after Pliny) Heliotropium tricoccum.
1578. Lyte, Dodoens, I. xli. 61. With the seede of the smal Tornesoll … they die and stayne old linnen cloutes and ragges into a purple colour,… wherewithall in this countrey men vse to colour gellies, wynes, fine Confections, and Comfittes.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, II. 91/1. Turnsole, at the leaves comes forth three berries … which have within them a juice, or moisture of a purple colour of which that Turn-sole is made; sold by the Drugists.
1728. Chambers, Cycl., Tornesol, Tournesol, or Turnsol, called also Heliotrope, and Sunflower, and by the Botanists Ricinoides. Ibid., The tournsol being no Plant of their [i.e., Dutch] Growth.
1756. C. Lucas, Ess. Waters, I. 21. Blews obtained from … archil, tournsol, &c. have their colors exalted or preserved by alcalies.
b. The plant Heliotropium europæum, the Great Tornesol of Lyte’s Herbal; sometimes used by modern botanists as a name for the genus Heliotropium.
1578. Lyte, Dodoens, I. xli. 60. The great Tornesol hath straight round stalkes, couered with a white hearie cotton…. The floures be white, at the toppe of the stalke, growing thicke togither in rewes.
1603. B. Jonson, Jas. I’s Entertainm., Wks. (Rtldg.), 528/2. Agrypnia, or Vigilance, in yellow,… her chaplet of Heliotropium, or turnsole.
1707. Curios. in Husb. & Gard., 142. The Famous Plant, call’d Heliotrope, Turn-Sole, or Sun-Flower.
1731. Miller, Gard. Dict. s.v. Heliotropium, The great Turnsole of Dioscorides. Ibid., Blue American Turnsole, with Clary Leaves.
a. 1832. Bentham, Deontol., i. (1834), I. 20. Let the moralist regard the great Deontological law, as steadily as the Turnsole looks upon the sun.
1866. Treas. Bot., 576/2. The Heliotrope or Turnsole, is a large genus of Ehretiaceæ.… They are herbs or undershrubs found chiefly in tropical and subtropical regions, but a few species reach Europe, and one, H[eliotropium] europæum, is distributed over … southern and central Europe.
1887. Moloney, Forestry W. Afr., 383. Indian Turnsole (Heliotropium indicum, L.).—Small annual.
c. Formerly applied to the Sunflower; also to the Sun-spurge or Wartwort, Euphorbia helioscopia.
1725. Family Dict., s.v. Sunflower, It’s named Turn-Sol by the Italians and French. Ibid., Between which [trees], at three Foot distance one from the other, our Turn-Sols may be planted.
1804. Malkin, Scen. etc. S. Wales, 606. Turnsoles,… though beautiful, are never planted on graves, because they are not sweet-scented.
1863–79. Prior, Pop. Names Brit. Plants, Turnsole or Tornsole, a name erroneously given in some old works to the wartwort.
3. attrib., as turnsole paper, rag, tincture.
1733. Shaw, Chem. Lect., xi. (1755), 210. We put four Ounces of what is commonly called Turnsol Rags into an earthen Vessel.
1753. Chambers’ Cycl., Supp. s.v. Turnesol, The plant that afforded the Turnesol colour. Ibid., The true Turnesol plant here described.
1797. Pearson, in Phil. Trans., LXXXVIII. 35. It reddened turnsole paper and tincture.
1836. J. M. Gully, Magendie’s Formul. (ed. 2), 191. The solution in question reddened turnsol paper.
