| Definition | the sun as a star, rather than as a personification |
| OED requirements | antedating 1929 |
| Earliest cite | L. F. Stone 'Out of the Void' |
| Comment | Brian Hopper submitted a cite from a 1968 reprint of Robert Heinlein's "Red Planet". Rick Hauptmann verified this cite in a 1950 reprint James Birdsall submitted a cite from a 1985 reprint of Andre Norton's "Star Rangers". Jeff Wolfe submitted a cite from a 1983 reprint of H. Beam Piper's 1952 novel "Uller Uprising". Imran Ghory submitted a cite from a 1995 reprint of Isaac Asimov's "Escape"; Mike Christie verified it in the 1945 original appearance. Enoch Forrester submitted a cite from a 1965 reprint of E.E. Smith's "Triplanetary" Dan Tilque submitted a cite from E.E. Smith's "Galactic Patrol"; Mike Christie verified it in the original 1937 magazine appearance. Enoch Forrester submitted a 1983 cite from David Brin's "Startide Rising". Fred Galvin submitted a cite from a reprint of John W. Campbell's "The Black Star Passes"; but Andrew May determined that the cite was not in the original 1930 magazine appearance. Katrina Campbell submitted a cite from a 1992 reprint of Anne McCaffrey and Jody Lynn Nye's 1990 "The Death of Sleep". Jeff Prucher submitted a 1931 cite from Nathan Schachner and Arthur Leo Zagat's "The Emperor of the Stars". Jeff Prucher submitted a 1929 cite from Leslie F. Stone's "Out of the Void". Fred Galvin submitted a 1932 cite from John W. Campbell Jr.'s "Invaders From the Infinite" Note that some of the early cites refer to "Old Sol", which sounds as if they may be rather more like a personification than a purely astronomical reference. (The OED has cites going back to 1450 for the sense of the Sun personified) |
| Last modified | 21 May, 2009 |
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| 1931 N. Schachner & A. L. Zagat in Wonder Stories Apr. 1229/2 | There's Orion, there's Cassiopeia, there's Lyra, there's Old Sol! We're home again. |
| 1932 J.W. Campbell Invaders From Infinite in Amazing Stories Quarterly Spring-Summer 211/1 | There were twelve gigantic worlds, each far larger than Jupiter of Sol, and larger than Stwall of Talso's sun, Renl. |
| 1935 J. W. Campbell Jr. Night in T. Shippey Oxf. Bk. Sci. Fiction (1992) 101 | That was Earth. And it was old Sol. |
| 1942 J. W. Campbell Supernova Centaurus in Astounding Sci. Fiction Feb. 6/2 | We've considered what might happen if Sol itself went nova. If it should go supernova, no worse could happen; Earth and all life on it would be fused and volatilized in either case. |
| 1944 ‘W. Long’ Nomad in Astounding Sci. Fiction Dec. 21/2 | We are close to Sol. A light-week or less. |
| 1944 Astounding Sci.-Fiction Mar. 46/2 | The sun was a huge, irregular disk of flaming yellow that had peculiar, symmetrical streamers flowing off; twelve of the main ones and a constant opening and closing twenty-four minor streamers that flowed outward from the duodecagonal pattern of Sol. |
| 1965 E. E. Smith Triplanetary 189 | Finally, their most pressing questions answered, they turned their most powerful ultra-beam communicator towards the yellowish star which they knew to be Old Sol. |
| 1974 A. D. Foster Dark Star (1978) 11 | But they couldn't chance letting one of those planet-busters back into Old Sol's backyard. |
| 1983 D. Brin Startide Rising 81 | The great cylinder was only twenty meters across. The vista wasn't as impressive as the view from the hub of one of the space cities of Sol's asteroid belts. |
| 1987 N. Spinrad Little Heroes (1989) 24 | That was just what he had been doing for these past eight days, but mostly up in midtown, where the Line between sombre and sol was clearly drawn by the city cops ‥ |
| 1988 C. J. Cherryh Cyteen 42 | Mars, fourth planet of Sol system. |
| 1989 J. M. Dillard Lost Years vi.136 | They're over two hundred sols old. |
| 1990 A. McCaffrey & J. L. Nye Death of Sleep (1992) 167 | Partly because of the Admiral's influence, but also because it is convenient to our mission, we're going to Alpha Centauri, then toward Sol. |
| 1991 K. Laumer Judson's Eden 54 | Figures: made out of the same gas cloud as Sol and the System. |
| 1992 B. Bova Mars (1993) 22 | To avoid confusion, space explorers refer to the Martian day as a ‘sol’. In one Martian year, there are 669 sols, plus an untidy fourteen hours, forty-six minutes and twelve seconds. |