sunspotn.
/ˈsʌnspɒt/, U.S. /ˈsənˌspɑt/ 1. A dark or discoloured spot occurring on the skin as a result of exposure to the sun; spec. a freckle (ephelis) or lentigo.
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the world > health and disease > ill health > blemish > [noun] > spot or mark
spotOE
markOE
tachea1400
macula?a1425
ruby1542
plotch1548
flea-biting1552
fleck1598
blanch1608
staina1616
naeve1619
neve1624
dark1637
sunspot1651
pip1676
liver spot1684
beauty spot1795
heat-spot1822
spilus1822
ink-spot1839
punctation1848
punctuation1848
macule1864
soldier's spots1874
pock1894
mouche1959
1651 L. Sowerby Ladies Dispensatory Table Vertues sig. Bb3v Lin-seed..takes away Sun-spots.
1806 Edinb. Med. & Surg. Jrnl. 2 57 Ephelis (sun-spots.).
1839 J. Elliotson Princ. & Pract. Med. 435 On other occasions, however, the skin is itself discoloured; and among these affections are mentioned sun-spots.
a1887 R. Jefferies Toilers of Field (1892) 262 Her brown but clear cheek, free from freckles and sun-spots.
1948 Lethbridge (Alberta) Herald 14 Sept. 14/5 Betty Ann Wilson won the freckles race with an official count of 7,641 assorted sun-spots.
1979 Tucson (Arizona) Citizen 3 Oct. 4B/2 He thought he was getting sunspots on his face.
2011 Harper's Bazaar (U.K. ed.) July 140/2 Dr Russo was the first cosmetic surgeon in the UK to introduce the Fraxel laser—used to remove wrinkles, sun spots, acne and surgical scars with rapid healing.
2. Astronomy. A relatively dark area appearing for a time on the sun's surface and having a lower temperature than its surroundings. Cf. spot n.1 1c.Sunspots are associated with strong magnetic fields and are believed to form where loops in the sun's magnetic field intersect the surface. Their diameter ranges from about 300 to 300,000 km; large spots may persist for several weeks, small ones only for a few hours. The number of sunspots varies according to a regular cycle, with times of maximum activity recurring approximately every eleven years.Cf. slightly earlier sun's spot n. at sun n.1 Compounds 5d.
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the world > the universe > sun > solar activity > [noun] > mark on sun > sunspot
sun's spot1656
macula1673
nebula1676
sunspot1676
solar spot1704
1611 J. Harriot 1 Dec. in Suppl. to Dr. Bradley's Misc. Wks. (1833) 33 I saw three blacke spots in such order as is here expressed as nere as I could judge.]
1676 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 11 695 I hoped to discover the truth of this suspicion by means of the Sun-spots, made to appear in the coloured Image by placing a Telescope behind the Prism.
1868 J. N. Lockyer Elem. Lessons Astron. §121 Its [sc. the magnetic needle's] greatest oscillations occurring when there are most sun-spots.
1878 S. Newcomb Pop. Astron. iii. ii. 248 1882, 1893, etc., will be years of numerous sun-spots.
1924 G. E. Hale Depths of Universe iii. 81 Thanks to this discovery, and to the recent completion on Mount Wilson of the 60-foot tower telescope, the means for testing the vortex hypothesis of electromagnetic fields in sun-spots lay ready at hand.
1990 Technol. Rev. Nov. 17/3 Today, amateurs are discovering comets and supernovas, identifying double stars, counting sunspots, and recording meteor showers.
2014 Times (Nexis) 2 Jan. 51 This recent solar maximum..was unusually feeble with few sunspots and weak storms.
3. Cinematography. A powerful arc lamp used to imitate the light from the sun in film production; = sun arc n. at sun n.1 Compounds 5a (historical). Occasionally also: a similar lamp or light used outside the film industry. Now rare.
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the world > matter > light > artificial light > an artificial light > artificial light defined by light-source > electric light > [noun] > arc light > sunspot
sun arc1889
sunspot1926
1926 Moving Picture World 29 Nov. 276/1 The Fox studios must have been cleared of all their Kleigs [sic] and sunspots for this event.
1976 H. R. F. Keating Filmi, Filmi iii. 29 We are using a great number of different lights for different purposes in filming, Five-Ks, Two-Ks, Sunspots, Solars, Babies.
1999 Lighting Equipm. News Dec. 10/3 Sunspots provide a contrast with the cooler light used elsewhere.
2013 D. Miyao Aesthetics of Shadow iv. 235 Each stage at Ofuna was equipped with a 10 kW sunspot per tsubo (approximately 3.3 meters square) on the ceiling.
4. A place or area which receives a lot of sunshine.
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the world > matter > properties of materials > temperature > heat > heating or making hot > subjection or exposure to heat or fire > [noun] > to heat of sun > place exposed to sun
sollarc1440
suntrap1848
sunspot1960
1960 Times 10 Aug. 3/3 (advt.) Eastbourne—that Autumn sunspot!
1993 Collins Compl. DIY Man. (new ed.) x. 422/3 Consider the neighbours... Trees which are high enough to shade their favourite sunspot..could be the source of argument for years to come.
2016 Scottish Daily Mail (Nexis) 20 July 48 In an ideal world, holiday firms would offer all travellers alternative trips to other sunspots.
Compounds
a. General attributive (in sense 2).
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1869 Proc. Amer. Philos. Soc. 1865–8 10 377 The principal periodical disturbances vary: 1st, with the solar hour;..9th, with the position of the principal planets (sun-spot period).
1884 H. F. Blanford in Indian Meteorol. Mem. (1894) 6 2 The epoch of sunspot maximum approximately coincides with that of minimum pressure.
1913 H. H. Turner in Monthly Notices Royal Astron. Soc. Dec. 89 The main Sun-spot swarm was in perihelion in 1816–7.
1936 Discovery June 176/2 It has been said that the levels of these lakes are closely connected with sunspot activity.
1977 C. McCullough Thorn Birds ix. 188 A man in Brisbane..who wasn't bad at long-range weather predictions, using a novel concept of sun spot activity.
2008 Sci. Amer. (U.K. ed.) Aug. 63/1 At the time of the initial CME released by the storm, this sunspot group was opposite Earth, putting our planet squarely in the bull's-eye.
b.
sunspot cycle n. the recurring increase and decrease in the number of sunspots, with a period averaging approximately eleven years.A cycle is held to begin at the point when sunspot activity is at a minimum.
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the world > the universe > sun > solar activity > [noun] > mark on sun > sunspot > recurrence of
sunspot cycle1922
1873 Proc. Amer. Philos. Soc. 1871–2 12 159 Mr. Chase communicated a Note on the Pluvial Indications of the Metonic and Sun-spot Cycles.
1922 H. S. Jones Gen. Astron. v. 126 There is a remarkable connection between the Sun-spot cycle and the occurrence of magnetic storms on the Earth.
2016 C. T. Russell et al. Space Physics iv. 109/2 The duration of the sunspot cycle can be a few years more or less than the nominal 11 years, and,..it takes two adjacent sunspot cycles to make one magnetic cycle.
Derivatives
ˈsunspottery n. depreciative (now historical) the subject or theory of sunspots, and esp. of their supposed connection with terrestrial phenomena.
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1878 Eng. Mechanic & World of Sci. 30 Aug. 627/2 I cannot, however, find that Sunspottery is one of the subjects which the B. A. has subsidised.
1905 Daily Mail 23 Aug. 7/3 The devotees of sunspottery (as it is interestingly called by its opponents) go on steadily with their investigations.
1975 Lubbock (Texas) Avalanche-Jrnl. 19 Oct. (Morning ed.) g5/1 Less enthusiastic colleagues of sunspot theorists dampened such enthusiasm with the contemptuous term ‘sunspottery’.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, January 2018; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
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