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▪ I. tropic, n. and a.1|ˈtrɒpɪk|
Forms: 4 tropik, 6 -ycque(-we), -yk(e, 6–7 -ike, -ique, -icke, 6–8 -ick, 7– tropic.
[ad. L. tropicus, a. Gr. τροπικός pertaining to the ‘turning’ of the sun at the solstice, tropical (hence as n. (sc. κύκλος circle) the tropic); also, of the nature of a trope, figurative, f. τροπή turning. Cf. F. tropique (16th c.).]
A. n.
I.
1. Astr. †a. Each of the two solstitial points, the most northerly and southerly points of the ecliptic, at which the sun reaches his greatest distance north or south of the equator, and ‘turns’ or begins to move towards it again; also (loosely), each of the two signs (Cancer and Capricorn) at the beginning of which these points occur. Obs.
In quot. 1662 erroneously extended to include the equinoctial points.
c1391Chaucer Astrol. i. §17 This signe of cancre is cleped the tropik of Somer, of tropos, þat is to seyn Agaynward, for thanne by-gynneth the sonne to passe fro vs-ward. 1579E. K. Gloss. Spenser's Sheph. Cal. Nov. 15 The sonne draweth low..toward his Tropick or returne. 1615G. Sandys Trav. 98 The Sunne performing his course in the winter Tropick. 1662Stanley Hist. Chaldaic Philos. (1701) 17/2 In Aries is the Spring Tropick, in Capricorn the Winter, in Cancer the Summer, in Libra the Autumnal.
b. Each of two circles of the celestial sphere (tropic of Cancer and tropic of Capricorn), parallel to the equinoctial or celestial equator, and distant about 23° 28′ north and south of it, touching the ecliptic at the solstitial points.
1503Kalender of Sheph. i ij, The other two [circles] ar namyt tropycqwes, the oon of sommer the other of wynter. 1555Eden Decades 183 The soonne..remaynynge continually betwene the two tropykes of Cancer and Capricorne. 1561― tr. Cortez' Arte Nauig. i. xv. 16 The Estiuall or sommer Tropyke. 1607Topsell Four-f. Beasts (1658) 112 Other by the Dogs, do understand the two Tropicks, which are (as it were) the two porters of the Sun for the South and North. 1625N. Carpenter Geog. Del. i. vi. (1635) 144 The Tropicks are Parallels bounding the Suns greatest declination. 1658Waller On Cromwell's Death 21 Under the Tropick is our Language spoke. 1837Whewell Hist. Induct. Sc. (1857) I. 114 Where the sun's path touches the tropics. 1868Lockyer Elem. Astron. iii. (1879) 65 At 23½° on either side of the equator are the Tropics.
c. fig. Turning-point; limit, boundary. (In quot. 1635 otherwise used: cf. 2 c.)
1635Quarles Embl. iii. vii. (1718) 155 Our equinoctial hearts can never lie Secure, beneath the tropicks of that eye. a1639Wotton Charac. Kings Eng. in Reliq. (1651) 166 States have their Conversions and Periods as well as Naturall Bodies, and we were come to our Tropique. 1670Eachard Cont. Clergy 54 It was a zodiacal mercy!..for Christ keeps within the tropicks; He goes not out of the pale of the church. 1844N. Paterson Manse Garden 63 Let rest and fatigue be your tropics and you will travel with unabated vigour over the undulating line of your ecliptic.
2. a. Geog. Each of two parallels of latitude on the earth's surface (corresponding to the celestial circles, 1 b, and called likewise tropic of Cancer and tropic of Capricorn), distant about 23° 28′ north and south of the equator, being the boundaries of the torrid zone.
1527R. Thorne in Hakluyt Voy. (1589) 252 From the Tropickes to both the Poles. 1604E. G[rimstone] D'Acosta's Hist. Indies ii. iv. 87 In Regions which lie without the Tropicks. c1645Howell Lett. (1688) III. 409 Our late Navigators..who use to cross the Equator and Tropiques so often. 1711Addison Spect. No. 170 ⁋13 It is a Misfortune for a Woman to be born between the Tropicks. a1780Watson Philip III (1839) 175 Countries..on this side of the northern tropic. 1878Huxley Physiogr. xx. 356 The boundaries of these zones are called tropics.
b. pl. With def. article.: The region between (and about) these parallels; the torrid zone and parts immediately adjacent.
1837W. Irving Capt. Bonneville III. 145 The Mississippi; whose rapid current traverses a succession of latitudes..in a few days..almost from the frozen regions to the tropics. 1854Emerson Lett. & Soc. Aims, Resources Wks. (Bohn) III. 203 The tropics are one vast garden. 1880Haughton Phys. Geog. iii. 130 The warm waters of the tropics are carried, bodily, into the temperate zone.
Comb.1887Daily News 7 Nov. 3/1 That pulmonary disease..generally..fatal to the tropic-born anthropoids.
c. fig. in allusion to the excessive heat or luxuriant growth of the tropics.
1641J. Jackson True Evang. T. i. 38 The sixt Persecution..did so scorch within the Tropicks of the Church, that many thousands suffered. 1893N.Y. New-Church Messenger 19 Apr. 244 Mastodon-affections..swarming through the tropics of his soul.
II.
†3. pl. (With capital initial.) [tr. L. tropicī (Athanasius, etc.).] Name for a sect who interpreted Scripture, or certain passages of Scripture, metaphorically. (Cf. tropist.) Obs.
1585–7T. Rogers 39 Art. v. (1633) 23 Some affirme the holy Ghost to be but a meere creature, as did Arius,..the Tropickes, [etc.].
†4. Tropical or metaphorical uses of words; tropes. Obs.
1697tr. Burgersdicius his Logic i. xxvi. 104 The Change of the Word, from its proper Signification, as in the Tropicks.
B. adj.
I.
1. Astr. a. Connected with the sun's ‘turning back’ towards the equator at the solstices; pertaining to the tropics, or to either tropic (in sense A. 1 a or b): = tropical 1. tropic circle or tropic line = A. 1 b; tropic point = A. 1 a. Now rare or Obs.
1551Recorde Cast. Knowl. (1556) 24 These other two cyrcles..are called the twoo Tropike cyrcles after the greeke deriuation. 1616Marlowe's Faust. vi. Wks. (Rtldg.) 117/2 He views the clouds, the planets, and the stars, The tropic Zones. 1667Milton P.L. x. 675 Som say the Sun Was bid turn Reines from th' Equinoctial Rode..Up to the Tropic Crab. 1667Dryden Sir Martin Mar-all v. i, I have seen your hurricanos and your calentures, and your ecliptics and your tropic lines. 1701Stanley's Hist. Philos. Biog. b j, Stanley..thinks his Gnomon did only note the Tropick and Equinoctial Points.
†b. fig. or allusively. Of or pertaining to turning (in quot., in allusion to Jas. i. 17). Obs.
1677Gale Crt. Gentiles II. iv. 258 It casts various shadows and causeth varietie of Seasons,..such is the ἀποσκίασµα or tropic shadow of the sun. But now the immutable God admits no such tropic shadows or variations.
2. Geog.
a. Belonging to the tropics (in sense A. 2 or 2 b): = tropical 2.
1799Wordsw. Ruth vii, No dolphin ever was so gay Upon the tropic sea. 1806Maurice Fall of Mogul ii. iv. 53 Relentless as the tropic whirlwind's rage. 1855Kingsley Westw. Ho! xxv, The rapid tropic vegetation has reclaimed its old domains. 1875Bennett & Dyer Sachs' Bot. 832 The vital conditions of all plants growing at a great elevation and in Arctic countries must be different from those growing in the lowlands of the Tropic and Temperate zones.
b. fig. = tropical 2 c.
[1802Wordsw. Sonn., ‘We had a female Passenger’ 10 Yet still her [a negro's] eyes retained their tropic fire. ]1887Daily News 29 June 5/2 Spring completely lost its way..and it was winter,..till this tropic time came upon us unawares.
3. a. tropic bird, any bird of the family Phaethontidæ, comprising sea-birds resembling terns, widely found in tropical regions, and characterized by webbed feet, rapid flight, and varied coloration.
1681Grew Musæum i. iv. iii. 74 The Tropick Bird. So called because said never to be seen but between the Tropicks. 1756P. Browne Jamaica 482 The Tropic Bird..breeds on the most desolate rocks and lonely places and is seldom seen near any inhabited shores. 1825Waterton Wand. S. Amer. ii. (1903) 64 Sometimes..the tropic bird comes near enough to let you have a fair view of the long feathers in his tail. 1896Newton Dict. Birds 990 The Yellow-billed Tropic-bird, P[haethon] flavirostris. Ibid. 991 The Red-tailed Tropic-bird, P. rubricauda or phœnicurus.
b. tropic crow: see quot.
1781Latham Synopsis Birds I. i. 384 Tropic [1809 Shaw, Tropical] Crow. Length twelve inches and a half..From O-wy-hee..in the South Seas.
c. tropic grape, the gulf-weed: = seagrape 6.
1850Miss Pratt Comm. Things Sea-side ii. 111 The Seagrape is an olive-green weed, with long slender leaves, and berries about as large as a pea, from which it derived its name of Tropic Grape. 1852Th. Ross Humboldt's Trav. I. iii. 129 To the north of the Cape Verd Islands we met with great masses of floating seaweeds. They were the tropic grape (Fucus natans), which grows..only from the equator to the fortieth degree of north and south latitude.
II.
4. Also with pronunc. |ˈtrəʊpɪk|. a. Biol. [Properly the second element of geotropic, heliotropic, etc. used as an inclusive or generic term (cf. -tropic, tropism).] Pertaining to, consisting in, or exhibiting tropism.
1903T. H. Morgan Evol. & Adapt. xi. 399 Another instinct, that appears to be due to a tropic response, is the definite time of day at which some marine animals deposit their eggs.
b. Of a hormone: = trophic a. 3.
1955R. M. De Coursey Human Organism xviii. 433 The hypophysis or pituitary gland has been called the master gland of all the endocrines because through its tropic hormones it exerts a regulatory effect over the activity of other endocrine glands. 1965Lee & Knowles Animal Hormones ii. 19 The hormones secreted by the adenohypophysis may be divided into those which control the secretion of other endocrine glands and are named trophic (or tropic) hormones; the remainder act without the mediation of another endocrine gland. 1982Jrnl. Clinical Endocrinol. & Metabolism LIV. 367/1 Rates of [14C]acetate incorporation into steroids are increased by tropic hormones.
▪ II. ˈtropic, a.2 Chem.
[Arbitrarily formed from atropic: cf. tropine.]
In tropic acid, an acid forming a constituent of atropine.
1881Watts Dict. Chem. VIII. 2062 Tropic acid, C9H10O3 = CH2(OH).CH(C6H5).CO2H. This acid, one of the proximate constituents of atropine, has lately been prepared synthetically from atropic acid. 1882Nature 2 Feb. 315/1 By decomposing atropine he obtained tropic acid and tropine, and by recombining these products he again formed atropine. |