Solarian n. 1

a native or inhabitant of Sol n. 1

See note at Solarian n. 2

Demonyms

  • 1834 J. Chickering Heavenly Bodies Inhabited in Scientific Tracts & Family Lyceum 1 Sept. 137 page image

    [I]f, according to the common idea, the solar rays, by their constant divergency, lose their intensity in the ratio of the square of the distances, they must, at the focus in the sun, be destructive alike to vision and to the animal economy, unless the constitution of the Solarians be very different from ours. Their bodies must have more than the stubbornness of the salamander to resist fire, and the ordinary amount of light necessary to good vision with us, would have no effect in forming an image of objects on their retina.

  • 1851 tr. C. Fourier Passions of the Human Soul 225

    It will be proved that a Solarian, supposing him to have a stature equal to our own, would do as much work as seven of our cultivators; and yet the Solarians are the happiest of beings; their lot is the highest degree of happiness to which we can aspire until the epoch when there shall exist stars of a more exalted rank, that are not yet to be found in our young universe.

  • 1929 D. H. Nabours Letter in Amazing Stories Quarterly Spring 284/1 page image

    Is it not plausible that these imaginary Solarians of ours could not be composed entirely of inorganic material and literally breathe fire? The terrific heat of the sun would not discomfort them in the least.

  • 1942 ‘H. Clement’ Proof in Astounding Stories June 103/1 Hal Clement bibliography

    ‘The trips are dangerous—you should have been told that. We carry a crew of thirty, when two would be enough to man this ship, for we must fight, as well as fly. You spoke truly when you said that the lower regions of Sol are our natural home; but for aeons we have not dared to make more than fleeting visits, to steal the power which is life to us. Your little worlds have been almost completely subjugated by your people, Sirian; they never had life forms sufficiently powerful to threaten seriously your domination. But Sol, whose core alone is far larger than the Sirius B pair, did develop such creatures. Some are vast, stupid, slow-moving, or immobile; others are semi-intelligent, and rapid movers; all are more than willing to ingest the ready-compacted neutronium of another living being.’ Kron’s tale was interrupted for a moment, as the Sirian sent a ray probing out through the ship’s wall, testing the physical state of the inferno beyond. A record was made, and the Solarian resumed.

  • 1951 K. Heuer Men of Other Planets 59

    The idea of solarians, inhabitants of the sun, was based upon theories of the sun’s structure, which were developed to explain sunspot phenomena.

  • 1980 D. Brin Sundiver 49 David Brin

    ‘There has been another dive since our meeting, Jacob, and on that dive, we are told, only the first and more prosaic species of Solarian was observed. Not the second variety which has caused Dr. Kepler so much concern.’ Jacob was still confused by the hurried explanations Kepler had given of the two types of Sun-creatures so far observed.


Research requirements

antedating 1834

Earliest cite

J. Chickering, Heavenly Bodies Inhabited

Research History
Fred Galvin submitted a cite from a 1951 reprint of Hal Clement's 1942 "Proof"; Mike Christie verified it in the original publication.
Fred Galvin submitted a 1951 cite from Kenneth Heuer's "Men of Other Planets".
Fred Galvin submitted a 1980 cite from David Brin's "Sundiver".
Malcolm Farmer submitted an 1851 cite from a translation from the French of Charles Fourier's "The Passions of the Human Soul"
Ben Ostrowsky submitted an 1834 cite.

We would be interested in seeing, besides antedatings, citations between 1851 and 1929.

William Herschel speculated, at the end of the 18th century, that the Sun was an earthlike planet surrounded by luminous clouds, sunspots being glimpses through the clouds of the darker, cool surface. This naturally led to speculation that the surface could be populated, probably by humanoids. As astronomical knowledge progressed in the 19th century, the notion of solar inhabitants fell out of favour, until its revival by SF in the 20th century, this time with beings of plasma, energy, or collapsed matter.

Last modified 2021-11-04 20:41:29
In the compilation of some entries, HDSF has drawn extensively on corresponding entries in OED.