girasol(e
(ˈdʒɪrəsɒl, -səʊl)
Also 6 girosol, 8 gyrasole.
[a. It. girasole (whence also F. girasol), f. gira-re to turn + sole the sun. Cf. heliotrope.]
† 1. A sunflower. Obs. rare— 1.
| a 1586 Sidney Arcadia i. (1598) 91 With grazing lookes, short sighes, vnsetled feet He stood, but turn'd, as Girosol, to Sun. |
2. A variety of opal which reflects a reddish glow in a bright light; called also fire-opal.
| 1588 Parke tr. Mendoza's Hist. China 403 Diamonds, rubies, & other stones y{supt} are called girasolis. 1611 Cotgr., Girasole, a Girasole; or precious stone, of the kind of Opalls, that yeelds an eye-like luster, which way soeuer you turne it, vnlesse it be towards the sunne; for then it casts forth beames like the sunne. 1662 Merret tr. Neri's Art of Glass lxxiv, Some..were of a fair Opal colour, and some of the Girasole. 1796 Kirwan Elem. Min. (ed. 2) I. 253 To this family (Oriental Sapphire) we may also annex the stone called Gyrasole. 1804 Phil. Trans. XCIV. 42 Girasol..I have long since adopted this word..to distinguish the substance to which Mr. Werner gives the general name of opal, and to which the Abbé Hauy gives the name of quartz resinite. 1853 Kane Grinnell Exp. xxxiv. (1856) 309 In the midst of which, like a huge girasole, flashes the round sun. 1868 Dana Min. (ed. 5) 198 Girasol. Bluish-white, translucent, with reddish reflections in a bright light. |