From Glover's solmization, from Middle English sol (“fifth degree or note of Guido of Arezzo's hexachordal scales”), Italian sol in the solmization of Guido of Arezzo, from the first syllable of Latin solve (“wash away”) in the lyrics of the scale-ascending hymn Ut queant laxis by Paulus Deacon.
Meanings
(countable, uncountable) In a movable-do or tonic sol-fa system: the fifth step in a scale, preceded by fa and followed by la.
Ser[vant, i.e., Peter]. Alack alack what ſhal I doe, come Fidlers play me ſome mery dumpe. / I. [First musician]. A ſir, this is no time to play. / […] / Ser. Then will I giue it you, and ſoundly to. / I. What will you giue vs? / Ser. The fidler, Ile re you, Ile fa you, Ile ſol you. / I. If you re vs and fa vs, we will note you. [c. 1591–1595 (date written), [William Shakespeare], […] Romeo and Juliet. […] (First Quarto), London: […] Iohn Danter, published 1597, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene v]:
D ſol re, one Cliffe, two notes haue I, / Ela mi, ſhow pitty or I die. c. 1590–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Taming of the Shrew”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i], page 218, column 2:
(countable, uncountable) In a fixed-do system: the musical note G.
Forms
Spelling
Features
Labels
Source
soh
alternative
lexicographic
so
alternative
lexicographic
sols
Number=Plur
lexicographic
Translations (20)
nl sol (in a movable-do system: the fifth step in a scale) · ja ソ (in a movable-do system: the fifth step in a scale) · vi son (in a movable-do system: the fifth step in a scale) · el σολ (in a movable-do system: the fifth step in a scale) · pt sol (in a movable-do system: the fifth step in a scale) · ro sol (in a movable-do system: the fifth step in a scale) · ar سُول m or صُول (in a movable-do system: the fifth step in a scale) · ca sol (in a movable-do system: the fifth step in a scale) · fi sol (in a movable-do system: the fifth step in a scale) · ru соль (in a movable-do system: the fifth step in a scale) · ja ソル (in a movable-do system: the fifth step in a scale) · ko 솔 (in a movable-do system: the fifth step in a scale) · hu szó (in a movable-do system: the fifth step in a scale) · fi so (in a movable-do system: the fifth step in a scale) · fr sol (in a movable-do system: the fifth step in a scale) · bg сол (in a movable-do system: the fifth step in a scale) · es sol (in a movable-do system: the fifth step in a scale) · gl sol (in a movable-do system: the fifth step in a scale) · mk сол (in a movable-do system: the fifth step in a scale) · eu sol (in a movable-do system: the fifth step in a scale)
Learned borrowing from Old French sol (“French coin”) (modern French sou), from Latin solidum, the accusative singular of solidus (“Roman gold coin; (adjective) solid”). Doublet of sold, soldo, solid, solidus, sou, and xu.
Meanings
(historical) An old coin from France and some other countries worth 12 deniers.
It was the fate of the grenadier company, to which I now belonged, to lie at Rheims, where I found myſelf in the utmoſt want of every thing: My pay, which amounted to five ſols a day, far from ſupplying me with neceſſaries; being ſcarce ſufficient to procure a wretched ſubſiſtance, to keep ſoul and body together; […] 1748, [Tobias Smollett], chapter XLIV, in The Adventures of Roderick Random. […], volume II, London: […] [William Strahan] for J[ohn] Osborn […], →OCLC, page 69:
This fellow, For ſix ſols more, would pleade againſt his Maker. 1605 (first performance), Beniamin Ionson [i.e., Ben Jonson], “Volpone, or The Foxe. A Comœdie. […]”, in The Workes of Beniamin Ionson (First Folio), London: […] Will[iam] Stansby, published 1616, →OCLC, Act IV, scene v, pages 502–503:
Moſt of their owne coines that I ſaw were theſe. In gold but one, which is their chiquiney: This piece doth much vary in the value. For ſometimes it is high, ſometimes low. When I was there, a chiquiney was worth eleuen liuers, and twelue ſols. Which counteruaileth eight ſhillings and eight pence halfe penny of our money. 1611, Thomas Coryate [i.e., Thomas Coryat], “My Obseruations of the Most Glorious, Peerelesse, and Mayden Citie of Venice: […]”, in Coryats Crudities Hastily Gobled Vp in Five Moneths Trauells […], London: […] W[illiam] S[tansby for the author], →OCLC, page 285, lines 18–24:
PIE word
*sóh₂wl̥
From Spanish sol (“sun”), from Latin sōl (“sun”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *sóh₂wl̥ (“sun”). Doublet of Sol and sol, directly from the Latin.
Meanings
(historical) A former Spanish-American silver coin.
The Tobacco of this colony is ſo excellent, that if the commerce thereof was free, it would ſell for one hundred ſols and ſix livres the pound, ſo fine and delicate is its juice and flavour. 1763, [Antoine-Simon] Le Page du Pratz, “Of the Commerce that Is, and May Be, Carried Out in Louisiana. […]”, in [anonymous], transl., The History of Louisiana, or of the Western Parts of Virginia and Carolina: […], volume I, London: […] T. Becket and P. A. De Hondt […], →OCLC, page 336:
In full nuevo sol or new sol: the main currency unit of Peru which replaced the inti in 1991; also, a coin of this value.
From Latin sōl (“sun”); see further at etymology 3. Doublet of sol from Spanish.
Meanings
A solar day on the planet Mars (equivalent to 24 hours, 39 minutes, 35 seconds).
On sol 46 (March 11, 2004 on Earth), Opportunity gathered data on a cluster of blueberries and confirmed the team's suspicions that this area of Mars once contained liquid water. 2023, Katie L. Carroll, Selfies From Mars: The True Story of Mars Rover Opportunity, page 2:
88,775 seconds = 24 hours, 39 minutes and 35 seconds / The duration of a synodic day on Mars, a ‘sol’ 2014, Gerard ’t Hooft, Stefan Vandoren, “10⁵ Seconds = 100,000 Seconds = 1.16 days = 27.78 Hours”, in Saskia A. Eisberg-’t Hooft, transl., Time in Powers of Ten: Natural Phenomena and Their Timescales, Singapore: World Scientific Publishing Co., →ISBN, part I, page 25:
I need to create calories. And I need enough to last the 1387 sols until Ares 4 arrives. If I don't get rescued by Ares 4, I'm dead anyway. A sol is 39 minutes longer than a day, so it works out to be 1425 days. That's my target: 1425 days of food. 2011, Andy Weir, chapter 3, in The Martian, New York, N.Y.: Broadway Books, published 2014, →ISBN, page 18:
ru марсиа́нские су́тки (solar day on the planet Mars) · fi Marsin päivä (solar day on the planet Mars) · no marsdøgn (solar day on the planet Mars) · zh 火星日 (solar day on the planet Mars)
Sense 1 (“type of colloid”) is derived from -sol (in words like alcosol and hydrosol), an abbreviation of solution.
Sense 2 (“solution to an objection”) is derived directly from solution.
Meanings
(physical) A type of colloid in which a solid is dispersed in a liquid.
(obsolete) A solution to an objection (or "ob"), for example, in controversial divinity.
Where Hinderſon, and th' other Maſſes / Were ſent to Cap Texts, and Put Caſes: / To paſs for deep, and Learned Scholars, / Although but Paltry, Ob-and-Sollers:[…] [1677 (indicated as 1678), [Samuel Butler], “[The Third Part of Hudibras]. Canto II.”, in Hudibras. The Third and Last Part. […], London: […] Robert Horne, […], published 1679, →OCLC; republished in A[lfred] R[ayney] Waller, editor, Hudibras: Written in the Time of the Late Wars, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: University Press, 1905, →OCLC, page 165:
[F]or that they had nothing elſe to doe, […] haue coyned a thouſand idle queſtions, nice diſtinctions, Obs and Sols, […] 1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], “Symptomes Generall, Loue to Their Owne Sect, Hate of All Other Religions, […]”, in The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition 3, section 4, member 1, subsection 3, page 524:
tl maladigkiting kaluswan (type of colloid in which a solid is dispersed in a liquid) · ja ゾル (type of colloid in which a solid is dispersed in a liquid) · ru золь (type of colloid in which a solid is dispersed in a liquid) · sh сол (type of colloid in which a solid is dispersed in a liquid) · gl sol (type of colloid in which a solid is dispersed in a liquid) · sh sol (type of colloid in which a solid is dispersed in a liquid) · pt sol (type of colloid in which a solid is dispersed in a liquid) · hu szol (type of colloid in which a solid is dispersed in a liquid) · fi sooli (type of colloid in which a solid is dispersed in a liquid) · es sol (type of colloid in which a solid is dispersed in a liquid) · ca sol (type of colloid in which a solid is dispersed in a liquid) · bg зол (type of colloid in which a solid is dispersed in a liquid) · zh 溶膠 /溶胶 (type of colloid in which a solid is dispersed in a liquid) · fr sol (type of colloid in which a solid is dispersed in a liquid) · ro sol (type of colloid in which a solid is dispersed in a liquid) · de Sol (type of colloid in which a solid is dispersed in a liquid) · pl zol (type of colloid in which a solid is dispersed in a liquid)
sol en · NOUN · etymology 6
Meanings
(abbreviation, alt-of, clipping, informal, qualifier:labour) Clipping of solidarity.