† 1. A rendering of L. sōlis gemma, described by Pliny (N. H., XXXVII. lxvii) as a white stone which throws out rays like the sun. Obs.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XVI. xc. (Bodl. MS.), lf. 182 b/1. The sonne stone hatte Solis gemma, and is white and schynynge and haþ þt name for he schyneþ with bemes as þee sonne doþ.
2. A name given to amber, because the Heliades or daughters of the sun, according to a Greek myth, were changed into poplars and wept amber.
Gr. ἤλεκτρον amber (see ELECTRUM) is related to ἠλέκτωρ, which occurs as an epithet of the sun.
1849. Otte, trans. Humboldt’s Cosmos, II. 494, note. The electron, the sun-stone of the very ancient mythus of the Eridanus.
1855. Bailey, Mystic, etc., 91. Sunstone, which every phantom foul dispels.
1896. W. A. Buffum, Tears of Heliades, I. (1898), 13. Trinacria’s lustrous and pellucid sun-stone.
3. Min. a. A name for several varieties of feldspar, showing red or golden-yellow reflections from minute embedded crystals of mica, oxide of iron, etc. b. = CAT’S-EYE 2. (So G. sonnenstein.)
1677. Plot, Oxfordsh., 81. I know not why it [sc. the Moonstone] may not as well be called the Sun-stone too.
1794. Schmeisser, Syst. Min., I. 137. Cats Eye…. The Sun Stone of the Turks.
1798. [see CAT’S EYE 2].
1821. R. Jamieson, Man. Mineral., 155. Another variety of adularia, found in Siberia, is known to jewellers under the name Sunstone. It is of a yellowish-grey colour, and numberless golden spots appear distributed throughout its whole substance.
1884. F. J. Britten, Watch & Clockm., 216. Moon-Stone, Sun-Stone, Amazon-Stone and Avanturine are forms of felspar.
4. (Always with hyphen.) A stone sacred to the sun, or connected with sun-worship.
1841. Penny Cycl., XX. 192/2. The … relics of Pagan places of worship…; the pillar stone of witness, the tapering sun-stone, [etc.].
