Also 4 sunni, 6 sonnye, sunnye, 6–7 sunnie, son(n)y, 7 sonie, Sc. sunȝie, sunie, 8 Sc. sinny. [f. SUN sb. + -Y1. Cf. WFris. sinnich, LG. sunnig, Du. zonnig, G. sonnig (dial. sunnig, sönnig).]
1. Characterized by or full of sunshine; in or during which the sun shines: esp. of a day, weather, or the like.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 23341. On sunni dai To se fixs in a water plai.
1508. Pol. Rel. & L. Poems (1903), 174. Was there neuer sonnye day so cleere.
1592. Soliman & Pers., I. ii. 43. Far more welcome … Then sunny daies to naked Sauages.
c. 1788. Burns, Fair Eliza, iii. The bee upon the blossom, In the pride o’ sunny noon.
1832. Lytton, Eugene A., I. v. The fresh yet sunny air stole in.
1851. Helps, Comp. Solit., i. (1874), 12. The inhabitants of sunnier climes.
1868. Dickens, Lett. to Miss Dickens, 16 March. We have had two brilliant sunny days.
2. Exposed to, illumined or warmed by, the rays of the sun; on which the sun shines.
1567. Fenton, Trag. Disc., xiii. (1898), II. 278. Neither roote of tree, height of rocke, nor sonnye syde of any greene hill.
1587. Mascall, Cattle (1596), 58. Castell … delight to be in sunnie places in winter … and in summer to be in thicke shadie woods.
1667. Milton, P. L., III. 28. Where the Muses haunt Cleer Spring, or shadie Grove, or Sunnie Hill.
1725. Fam. Dict., s.v. Pears, Ambrotia, a handsom good siz’d Pear,… of a smooth, greenish yellow Skin, red of the Sunny Side.
1833. Macaulay, Ess., H. Walpole (1897), 275. An entertainment worthy of a Roman epicure, an entertainment consisting of nothing but delicacies, the brains of singing-birds, the roe of mullets, the sunny halves of peaches.
1836. W. Irving, Astoria, I. x. 158. Those placid streams and sunny lakes stocked with all kinds of fish.
1880. ‘Ouida,’ Moths, I. 58. This little gay room was certainly brighter and sunnier.
† b. Sunny half, quarter: that side of a piece of land that faces the south (opposed to shadow half). Cf. sun half (SUN sb. 13). Sunny-east: south-east. Also † sunny chamber, a summer-house. Sc. Obs.
1574. in Reg. Mag. Sig. Scot., 1587–8, 496/1. Dimidietatem solarem lie sonnie halff de MyIntoun de Conen. Ibid. (1585), 695/2. Sa mekill of our foirsaid sony halff landis haldin be ws as said is, as lyis outwith the propper designit boundis heirefter following. Ibid. (1600), 337/1. Octo bovatas terrarum … vocatas the Sonny-quarter. Ibid. (1610), 102/2. Lie sony quarter landis of Tyrie. Ibid. (1633), 725/2. Lie sonie-eist-half de Dumbertnit. Ibid. (1641), 368/2. Cum claustro et lie sunȝiechalmer cum hortis ejusdem.
3. Pertaining to the sun; solar. rare (exc. as in b).
1607. Topsell, Four-f. Beasts, 465. The Cocke … is a terror to the Lion … because they are both partakers of the Sunnes qualities…, and … there is a more eminent and predominant sunny propertie in the Cocke, then in the Lion.
b. Of light: Of or proceeding from the sun.
1579. Spenser, Sheph. Cal., Aug., 81. All as the Sunnye beame so bright. Ibid. (1590), F. Q., II. v. 32. There he him found … In secret shadow from the sunny ray.
1593. Breton, Daff. & Prim., Wks. (Grosart), I. 19/1. There was no speach of sonny beame, Nor of the golden silke.
1725. Pope, Odyss., X. 186. A tall stag … lay, Stretch’d forth, and panting in the sunny ray.
1880. ‘Ouida,’ Moths, I. 74. The sunny daylight seeming to go round her in an amber mist.
fig. 1602. Marston, Ant. & Mel., V. Wks. 1856, I. 61. Your brightest beames Of sunny favour.
1657. F. Cockin, Div. Blossomes, 47. You bath your souls in this her sunny-shine.
1819. Keats, Lines to Fanny, 44. O, for some sunny spell To dissipate the shadows of this hell!
4. Resembling the sun in color or brightness; appearing as if illumined by the sun; (of the hair) bright yellow or golden.
1596. Shaks., Merch. V., I. i. 169. Her sunny locks Hang on her temples like a golden fleece.
1647. Cowley, Mistr., Vain Love, 8. A rich, and sunny Diamond.
1742. Collins, Odes, IV. 45. Truth, in sunny vest array’d.
1810. Scott, Lady of L., II. xxv. His flaxen hair, of sunny hue.
1838. Lytton, Alice, II. i. Ringlets of darkest yet sunniest auburn.
1887. Rider Haggard, Jess, xxvii. She … laid her sunny head upon the old man’s shoulder.
5. fig. ‘Bright,’ cheerful, joyous; expressing or awakening gladness or happiness.
1545. Coverdale, Erasm. Enchir., xiii. To have a clean and sunny mind.
1590. Shaks., Com. Err., II. i. 99. A sunnie looke of his.
1837. Howitt, Rur. Life, II. iv. (1862), 138. To present the sunny side of the picture as the reverse of my gloomy one.
1849. De Quincey, Eng. Mail Coach, iii. Wks. 1897, XIII. 325. Again the choir burst forth in sunny grandeur.
1870–2. Liddon, Elem. Relig., iv. (1904), 131. Such is Schopenhauer’s reply to the sunny Optimism of Leibnitz.
1891. Farrar, Darkn. & Dawn, xiv. A little boy, whose sweet and sunny face looked the picture of engaging innocence.
1891. E. Peacock, N. Brendon, I. 254. Her soul was bright and sunny.
6. Comb. a. with other adjs., as sunny-clear, -red, -sweet, -warm.
1708. J. Philips, Cyder, II. 70. Flames, whose unresisted Force O’er Sand, and Ashes, and the stubborn Flint Prevailing, turns into a fusil Sea, That in his Furnace bubbles sunny-red.
1833. Tennyson, Palace of Art, xxiv. In tracts of pasture sunny-warm. Ibid. (1855), Daisy, xii. In bright vignettes … Of tower or duomo, sunny-sweet.
1858. Lewes, Sea-side Studies, 219. The mystic drama will be sunny clear, and all Nature’s processes will be visible to man, as a divine Effluence.
b. parasynthetic, as sunny-colo(u)red, -faced, -hearted, -spirited adjs. (with derivatives, as sunny-heartedness); also sunny-day adj. (fig.: cf. SUNSHINE 5 c, SUMMER sb.1 4 e).
1832. Bryant, Autumn Woods, vii. Their *sunny-coloured foliage.
1821. Scott, Kenilw., vii. Such *sunny-day courtiers as my noble guest.
a. 1847. Eliza Cook, Old Mill-stream, xxii. The *sunny-faced child.
1856. Miss Yonge, Daisy Chain, I. xx. (1879), 211. Ethel was brilliantly happy waiting on the children, and so was *sunny-hearted Meta.
1856. J. W. Kaye, Life Sir J. Malcolm, I. iv. 54. The elasticity and *sunny-heartedness of the writer.
1848. Faber, Spir. Confer. (1870), 143. A *sunny-spirited Christian.
