the star that Earth orbits; the Sun
OED has evidence for the use of Sol as a personification of the Sun from the 15th century.
[< Latin]
Directly behind us lay the Sun, a great flaming ball that was blinding. A little to the left, appearing as large though not as bright as old Sol, was Mother Earth.
There’s Orion, there’s Cassiopeia, there’s Lyra, there’s Old Sol! We're home again.
There were twelve gigantic worlds, each far larger than Jupiter of Sol, and larger than Stwall of Talso’s sun, Renl.
Finally, their most pressing questions answered, they turned their most powerful ultra-beam communicator toward the yellowish star which they knew to be Old Sol.
That was Earth. And it was old Sol. Old—old Sol. It was the time axis that coil distorted, not gravity at all.
We've considered what might happen if Sol itself went nova. If it should go supernova, no worse could happen; Earth and all life on it would be fused and volatilized in either case.
It is the second planet of the star Beta Hydri, right angle 0:23, declension -77:32, G-0 (solar) type star, of approximately the same size as Sol; distance from Earth, 21 light years.
‘Terra of Sol.’ He read it aloud and the three words seemed to echo more loudly down the hall than any of the shouted names of the kindred stars. ‘Terra of Sol—man’s beginning!’
The great cylinder was only twenty meters across. The vista wasn’t as impressive as the view from the hub of one of the space cities of Sol’s asteroid belts.
Partly because of the Admiral’s influence, but also because it is convenient to our mission, we’re going to Alpha Centauri, then toward Sol.
Figures: made out of the same gas cloud as Sol and the System.
Sol was still ‘the sun’ even though there were thirteen hundred more like it, shining down on human heads.
antedating 1929
L. F. Stone 'Out of the Void'
Note that some of the early cites refer to "Old Sol", which sounds as if they may be rather more like a personification than a purely astronomical reference. (The OED has cites going back to 1450 for the sense of the Sun personified.)
Last modified 2021-02-06 05:27:24
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