Sunbeam

[OE. sun(n)béam, also sunne béam: see SUN sb. and BEAM sb.¹ The form sunnēbeme was current until c. 1430; sunbeme became frequent from 1300, first in northern texts.]

  1.  A beam of sunlight.

c. 1000.  Ælfric, Saints’ Lives, iv. 275. Hwæt fremað þam blindan seo beorhta sun-beams?

c. 1121.  O. E. Chron., an. 678 (Laud MS.). Her ateowede cometa se steorra on Auguste, & scan .iii. monðas ælce morʓen swilce sunne beam.

c. 1200.  Ormin, 18979. All all saw summ þe sūnebæam Bishineþþ all þe blinde.

c. 1290.  S. Eng. Leg., I. 480. He saiȝh hire neb, and turnde aȝein so briȝht so sonne-bem.

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 11228. Þe sun beme Gais thoru þe glas.

c. 1300.  Havelok, 592. Of hise mouth it stod a stem, Als it were a sunnebem.

1426.  Lydg., De Guil. Pilgr., 16212. Lyke vn-to the Sonne Bemys, Shynynge most hoote, the Sommerys day.

1540–1.  Elyot, Image Gov., 69. High trees … did cast … a pleasant … shadowe, and defended theim … from the vehement heate of the sunne beames.

1589.  Greene, Menaphon (Arb.), 23. The Mermaides … drying their waterie tresses in the Sunne beames.

1625.  N. Carpenter, Geog. Del., I. ii. (1635), 39. The quiuering light which is spread by the refraction of the Sun-beames in the water.

1632.  Milton, Penseroso, 8. The gay motes that people the Sun Beams.

1706.  Pope, Lett. to Wycherley, 10 April. Some [verses] I have contracted, as we do Sun-beams, to improve their … Force.

1840.  Dickens, Old C. Shop, xv. Sparkling sunbeams dancing on chamber windows.

1843.  Ruskin, Mod. Paint., I. II. III. i. § 13. Where a sunbeam enters, every particle of dust becomes visible.

  b.  fig.

c. 1200.  Ormin, 7278. Crist iss ec soþ sunnebæm Þatt all þiss werelld lihhteþþ.

c. 1450.  Godstow Reg., 16. Now helpe us, good lady!… Of the blessid sonne-beem ȝeue us summe light.

1624.  Sir J. Davies, Ps. xxi. The sunn-beames of Thy face will cheare his hart.

1807–8.  W. Irving, Salmag., xv. (1824), 278. [They] were delighted to see the sun-beams once more play in his Countenance.

  c.  (Written) with a sunbeam or in sunbeams: in bright conspicuous characters.

a. 1770.  Jortin, Serm. (1771), I. i. 12. The great duties of life are written with a Sun-beam.

1891.  Farrar, Darkn. & Dawn, xlvi. Such words fall too often on our cold and careless ears with the triteness of long familiarity; but to Octavia … they seemed to be written in sunbeams.

  2.  Used as a literal rendering of a native word applied to a radiant-colored humming-bird.

1613.  Purchas, Pilgrimage, VIII. ii. 615. The Brasilians called it Ourissia, which signifieth the Sun-beame.

1681.  Grew, Musæum, I. IV. i. 61. The Huming Bird. By the Brasilians, called Guanumbi. By Clusius, Ourissia, i. e. a Sun-beam.

1688.  R. Holme, Armoury, II. xiii. 297/1. This [Humming] Bird by the Brasilians is also called … Guara-cyaba, that is a Sun-beam Bird, and Guara-cigaba, the hair of the Sun.

1870.  Gillmore, trans. Figuier’s Reptiles & Birds, 466. The Indians call these darlings Sun-beams.

  3.  Comb., as sunbeam-proof adj.

1820.  Shelley, Cloud, 65. Over a torrent sea, Sunbeam-proof, I hang like a roof.

  Hence † Sunbeamed, Sunbeamy (? U.S.) adjs., bright as a sunbeam; genial.

1588.  Shaks., L. L. L., V. ii. 168. To behold with your *Sunne beamed eyes.

a. 1849.  J. C. Mangan, Poems (1859), 292. That *sunbeamy standard that shone … To illumine our way.

1890.  ‘Annie Thomas,’ Love of Lady, I. ix. 160. She enjoyed few things more in life than staying with him, and bringing a good portion of her sunbeamy nature into his quiet life.

1897.  E. P. Larken, in Pall Mall Mag., Dec., 443–4. It [her hair] was her chief beauty, falling as it did in soft, golden, sunbeamy masses down her back.