solar adj.

*sāwel-, Proto-Indo-European root meaning "the sun." According to Watkins, the *-el- in it originally was a suffix, and there was an alternative form *s(u)wen-, with suffix *-en-, hence the two forms represented by Latin sol, English sun.

It forms all or part of: anthelion; aphelion; girasole; heliacal; helio-; heliotrope; helium; insolate; insolation; parasol; parhelion; perihelion; Sol; solar; solarium; solstice; south; southern; sun; Sunday.

It is the hypothetical source of/evidence for its existence is provided by: Sanskrit suryah, Avestan hvar "sun, light, heavens;" Greek hēlios; Latin sol "the sun, sunlight;" Lithuanian saulė, Old Church Slavonic slunice; Gothic sauil, Old English sol "sun;" Old English swegl "sky, heavens, the sun;" Welsh haul, Old Cornish heuul, Breton heol "sun;" Old Irish suil "eye;" Avestan xueng "sun;" Old Irish fur-sunnud "lighting up;" Old English sunne German Sonne, Gothic sunno "the sun."

1891, "part of a house arranged to receive the sun's rays," usually a flat top, earlier, in a classical context, "sundial" (1842), from Latin solarium "sundial," also "a flat housetop," literally "that which is exposed to the sun," from sol "the sun" (from PIE root *sawel- "the sun"). Also see -ium.

1680s, in anatomy, "an interlacing of nerves, vessels, or fibers," Modern Latin, literally "braid, network," noun use of past participle of Latin plectere "to twine, braid, fold," from suffixed form of PIE root *plek- "to plait." Original use in solar plexus "network of nerves in the abdomen" (see solar). General sense of "net-like arrangement of parts" is from 1760s. Related: Plexal.