Forms: α. 1 solor, (1) 4–7 soler, 4–5 (9) solere. β. 5– solar, 5–6 solare. γ. 6– soller (7 -or, 9 -ere), 8 saller. δ. 6– sollar (6 -are). [OE. solor, soler-, = OS. soleri, OHG. solâri, solêri (MHG. solre, sölre, etc., G. söller, † soller), MDu. solre (Du. zolder), MLG. solder (LG. solder, soller), ad. L. sōlāri-um, f. sōl sun. In ME., however, perh. readopted from AF. soler, solair, = OF. solier, Prov. solier, solar, Pg. soalheiro, It. solaio.]
1. An upper room or apartment in a house or other dwelling; in later use esp. a loft, attic or garret (sometimes used as a granary or store-room). Now arch. or dial.
Originally one open to the sun or receiving much sunlight. In OE. only transf. and fig. The confusion with cellar which appears in quot. 13[?] is found occasionally in other texts down to the 16th cent.
α. c. 897. K. Ælfred, trans. Gregory’s Past. C., 23. Oððæt hio fæstlice ʓestonde on ðæm solore ðæs modes.
a. 1000. Phœnix, 204. Þær se wilda fuʓel … ofer heanne beam hus ʓetimbreð … & ʓewicað þær sylf in þam solere.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 15208. He þam lent … A celer [Fairf. soler] in at ete.
13[?]. Sir Beues, 1532. Nas mete ne drinke before him leid,… Boute be a kord of a solere.
1388. Wyclif, Gen. vi. 16. Thou [Noah] shalt make soleris … in the schip.
c. 1400. Laud Troy Bk., 15374. Paris thanne & his comperes Come walkyng out of here soleres.
1463. Bury Wills (Camden), 32. The ij chambrys with the soler above.
1523. Ld. Berners, Froissart, I. ccxxxii. 322. The women … entred into the houses, and went vp into the batylmentes and solers, and cast downe … stones.
1603. Stow, Surv. (ed. 2), 270. Sheds or shops, with solers ouer them.
β. c. 1450. Godstow Reg., 404. The solare and tenement of the forsaid Laurence.
1542. Udall, Erasm. Apoph., 240 a–b. Must I bee fain to walke on ye solares or loftes of my hous?
1598. Stow, Surv., 237. Two shops, with solars, sellars, and other edifices.
1606. Holland, Sueton., 147. [He] slily crept forth and conveied himselfe up into a Solar [marg. a garret] next adioyning.
a. 1695. A. Wood, Hist. Univ. Oxford (1792), I. 359. Stone steps that led to the solar or chamber.
1789. Smyth, trans. Aldrich’s Archit. (1818), 112. In the roof there are often rooms which we call solars.
1851. T. H. Turner, Dom. Archit., I. 86. The principal chamber after the hall was that called the lord’s chamber, or sometimes the solar.
1868. Freeman, in Stephens, Life (1895), I. vi. 412. All … of this page has been written … in the solar of the manor-house.
1895. C. R. B. Barrett, Surrey, iii. 88. The floor of this solar is sustained by massive oak beams.
γ. 1530. Palsgr., 272/2. Soller, a lofte, garnier.
1559. Bury Wills (Camden), 153. A hutche on the soller.
1580. Tusser, Husb. (1878), 129. Then dresse it and laie it in soller vp sweete.
1623. Maldon Documents (Bundle 167, no. 1), One litle shop with a soller over it.
1674. Ray, S. & E. C. Words, 77. Soller, or Solar, an upper Chamber or Loft.
a. 1825. Forby, Voc. E. Anglia, Soller, a loft.
1839. Sir G. C. Lewis, Gloss. Heref., Soller, an upper floor.
δ. 1530. Palsgr., 272/2. Sollar, a chambre, solier.
1548. Udall, etc. Erasm. Par. Acts xx. 68. There were manye candelles in the sollare where as we wer than assembled.
1577. Harrison, Descr. Brit., II. xviii. To such an Inne or sollar there I laie my corne.
1601. Holland, Pliny, I. 433. If they be kept in borded sollors or garners, the oile will be … lesse in quantitie.
1638. Rawley, trans. Bacon’s Life & Death (1650), 5. The placing of Garners, on the Tops of Houses,… is very commodious. Some also make two Sollars; An Upper, and a Lower. And the upper Sollar hath an hole in it; thorow which the Graine continually descendeth.
1819. H. Busk, Vestriad, III. 817. Drowsy cits, who in their sollars snore.
1886. J. Payne, trans. Boccaccio’s Decameron, VIII. vii. III. 90. A little uninhabited tower … that the shepherds climb up … to a sollar at the top.
b. An elevated chamber or loft in a church, in later use spec. in a steeple or belfry.
c. 1305. St. Kenelm, 340, in E. E. P. (1862), 56. Heo sat in seint peteres churche biside þe abbey ȝate In a soler in þe est side, & lokede out þerate.
1516. Churchw. Acc., in Nicholls (1797), 156. A locke and a keye to the weste dore of the solare within the church.
1533. Dunmow Churchw. MS., fol. 18 b. For makyng of the dore in to the ryngyng soller, 3s 8d.
1561. Ludlow Churchw. Acc. (Camden), 105. For ij fealde and a lader that serveth in the steple or soller.
1570. Foxe, A. & M. (ed. 2), III. 2281/2. You are one of them that … pulled downe the Rode seller [1596 sollar, 1684 sollor], and all the Saintes.
1754. T. Gardner, Hist. Dunwich, 156. The Vice or Stairs do not exceed in Height the upper Soller where the Bells hung.
a. 1825. Forby, Voc. E. Anglia, 315. A belfry … is sometimes called the bell-soller, sometimes simply the soller.
1875. Encycl. Brit., II. 473/1. Solar, Soller,… an elevated chamber in a church from which to watch the lamps burning before the altars.
1906. J. J. Raven, Bells, 51. The chamber called the solarium, a name still preserved by ringers in their word ‘soller.’
† c. A story of a house. Obs.
1585. Higins, trans. Junius’ Nomencl., 181/2. Tristega,… an house of three sollers. Ibid., 211/2. Contignatio,… rearing of an house in sollers or stories.
1600. Holland, Livy, 1379. Plinie calleth it Septisolium, or seven lofts or solars.
† 2. A place exposed to the sun. Obs.
c. 1440. Pallad. on Husb., VI. 176. At Mayes eende a solar is to paue.
3. Cornish mining. a. A platform in a mine, esp. one supporting a ladder.
1778. Pryce, Min. Cornub., 326. A Saller, in a Mine, is a stage or gallery of boards for men to stand on and roll away broken stuff in wheel-barrows…. In a footway Shaft, the Saller is the floor for a ladder to rest upon.
1855. [J. R. Leifchild], Cornwall, 156. At the foot of each ladder is a platform called a ‘sollar,’ with an opening or man-hole leading to the next ladder beneath.
1896. J. Hocking, Fields of Fair Renown, i. 8. We are working from the twenty-fathom sollar towards the old mine.
b. A raised floor under which air is admitted to a working.
1778. Pryce, Min. Cornub., 147. They lay boards on the bottom of the Adit,… by which contrivance, called a Saller, the boards being hollow underneath, air is conveyed to the workmen.
1875. J. H. Collins, Met. Mining, 116. A natural current may often be produced in a long level by means of an ‘air-sollar.’ To form an air-sollar, the floor of the level … is laid about 6 inches above the actual bottom of the level.
4. attrib., as sollar-board, -chamber, -floor, etc.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XVII. clxii. (Bodl. MS.). Bordes and tables … whan þei beþ isette in soler flores and serueþ alle men þat beþ þerin.
1648. Hexham, II. Een Zolderberdt, a Sollar-plank or board.
1819. Scott, Ivanhoe, vi. I thought to have lodged him in the solere chamber.
Hence Sollar v. trans., to furnish with a sollar or flooring. Also Sollaring (vbl.) sb.
1547. in J. R. Boyle, Hedon (1875), App. 134. For mendynge the sollerynge over the hye altar, ij.d.
1648. Hexham, II. Een planckier, a Sollering with Plankes. Ibid., Zolderen, to Sollar, or to Lay with plankes or boards.
1778. Pryce, Min. Cornub., 147. To make these matters clear with regard to driving and Sallering an Adit.
