sun

Pronunciation

• IPA: /sʌn/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English sonne, sunne,^[2][3] inherited from Old English sunne (“the sun”),^[2][4][5] from Proto-Germanic *sunnōn,^[4][6] the source also of Old Saxon and Old High German sunna (German Sonne, Dutch zon), Old Norse sunna and Gothic sunnō,^[2][4] from Proto-Indo-European *s(u)wen-, an alternative form of the root Proto-Indo-European *sawel- (“the sun”),^[2][5] which with an l-suffix gave Latin sōl and Greek hḗlios.^[6][3] It is related to solar and perhaps to south.^[4][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old English sunne is found about 725, in Beowulf;^[4] the OED's first quotation is from about 888.^[7]

Semantic evolution

Old English sunne was feminine, as generally in Germanic, and the feminine pronoun was used for the sun in English until the 16th century;^[2][7] since then the masculine has prevailed, without necessarily implying personification.^[2] The sun as an object of worship is from about 1205.^[7] Under the sun, “anywhere in the world”, is by about 1200, and late Old English had under sunnan.^[2] The empire on which the sun never sets (1630) was first the Spanish, later the British.^[2] A place in the sun is from the 1680s, first in a translation of Pascal's Pensées.^[2] The verb, “to expose to the sun”, is from 1519^[4][7] or the mid-15th century,^[2] and “to bask in the sun” from about 1600.^[2] Sunbeam is Old English, about 1000, sundial from 1599 and sundown from 1620.^[4]

Timeline

• c. 725 – Old English sunne.^[4]
• c. 1000 – sunbeam.^[4]
• c. 1200 – under the sun.^[2]
• 1519 – verb, to expose to the sun.^[4][7]
• 16th century – the masculine pronoun for the sun.^[2]
• c. 1600 – to bask in the sun.^[2]
• 1630 – the empire on which the sun never sets.^[2]
• 1680s – a place in the sun.^[2]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. The star around which the Earth and the other planets of the solar system move, giving light and heat.
2. The light and heat from the sun; sunshine: sit in the sun.

Verb

1. To expose to the sun's rays; to bask in the sun.

Word family

• sunlike

Related words

• south
• solar
• sunny
• Sunday
• sunshine
• sunbeam
• helium
• sol

Usage notes

An unrelated sun, from Japanese, is a unit of length of about 3 centimetres, from 1727.^[7][8]

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (2000), 4th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
6. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d e f Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press