turnsole
(ˈtɜːnsəʊl)
Forms: 4 turnisoll, 4–8 turnesole, (5–6 turne-, 7 turnsoyle, turn(e)soil(e), 6 turnesoll, -sell, -sall, -saule, turnsale, -sowell, tornsole, -sell, -salle, tornesall(e, -sol(e, -solt, tournesoll, -sole, -soule, 6–7 turnsall, 7 -soll, -soule, 7–8 turnesol, 8 tournsol, 6–9 turnsol, 5– turnsole.
[a. F. tournesol (14th c. in Littré), prob. ad. older Prov. tournasol (now tournosol) = Sp. and Pg. tornasol, It. tornasole, f. Romanic tornare to turn + L. sōl the sun.
In F., as in Eng., first recorded as the name of the colouring matter derived from one of the plants bearing the name. In mod. Sp., Pg., and It. chiefly used in sense 2 b.]
1. A violet-blue or purple colouring matter, obtained from the plant Crozophora tinctoria (see 2 a), formerly much used for colouring jellies, confectionery, wines, etc., and later as a pigment. (See also quots. 1712 and 1830.)
Coarse linen rags are steeped in the juice, and then dried and exposed in vats over an ammoniacal mixture; hence the designation † turnsole in rags = F. tournesol en drapeau.
| 1375 Exch. Rolls Scotl. II. 507 Computat per empcionem de iij libris alkynet, j libra de turnisoll, et j libra de savndre. 1392 Earl Derby's Exp. (Camden) 154 Pro iij lb. turnesole ad xiiij d. c 1440 Anc. Cookery in Househ. Ord. (1790) 437 Colour hit with turnesole, or with ynde, or with alkenet, or saunders, or saffron. 1513 Bk. Keruynge in Babees Bk. (1868) 268 Tornsole is holsome for reed wyne colourynge. 1573 Art of Limming 4 To make azure and bize sadder, take good blewe tournesoll and wet it in gumme water. 1606 Peacham Art of Drawing i. xxiii. (1612) 86 The sorts of Red are these. Vermilion. Synaper lake... Red lead. Roset. Turnsoile [etc.]. Ibid. 88 Turnesoile is made of old linnen ragges died:..it is good to shadow carnations, and all yealowes. 1615 Markham Eng. Housew. ii. ii. 70 If you will haue [the jelly] coloured, then put in a little Tournesall. 1616–61 B. Holyday Persius 308 The armorists indeed slight your common purple made of grocer's turnesol, a mixture of vermilion and blew bysse, or cynnaber, or the colour of violets. 1688 [see 2 a]. 1712 tr. Pomet's Hist. Drugs v. 93/2 Tornesol or Turnsole in Rags, is made of Linnen Cloth dyed at Constantinople, with Cocheneal and some Acids. The Cotton Turnsole, call'd Portugal or Spanish Wool, is made from Cotton that is..dyed in Spain or Portugal with Mestich Cochineal. Both Sorts are made use of to colour Liquors, Fruits and Gellies. There is another Kind of Turnsole that is made with Rags dipp'd in a red Tincture, prepar'd with the Juice of the Berry, and a little acid Liquor. 1783 Phil. Trans. LXXIII. 39 Acids possess the property of changing the juice of turnsol, or infusion of litmus, red. 1830 Lindley Nat. Syst. Bot. 103 The preparation called Turnsol,..chiefly obtained from Crozophora (Croton) tinctoria, is to be procured equally abundantly from many other plants of the order [Euphorbiaceæ]. 1866 Treas. Bot. 352/1 C[rozophora] tinctoria..is cultivated in the South of France for the sake of a dye which is obtained from it. This dye is called Turnsole, and is obtained by grinding the plants..to a pulp in a mill, when they yield about half their weight of a dark green coloured juice, which becomes purple by exposure to the air or under the influence of ammonia. |
| fig. 1599 Broughton's Let. xi. 38 Coloured with the Turnsalue of your Phantasticall braine. |
b. transf. = litmus.
So F. tournesol and tournesol en pain.
| 1839 Ure Dict. Arts 53 The lichen which produces archil is subjected to another preparation, to make turnsole (litmus). This article is made in Holland. 1842 Brande Dict. Sc. etc. 671/1 Litmus..a blue pigment obtained from the lichen Rocella..it is often called turnsol, and yields the dye called archil. |
2. A plant of which the flowers or leaves turn so as to follow the sun; a heliotrope. a. An annual euphorbiaceous plant, Crozophora tinctoria, the small tornesol of Lyte's Herbal, found wild by the Mediterranean, and cultivated in the south of France for its colouring juice (see 1).
In earlier botanical use called Croton tinctorium (or -ius), Ricinoides (Tournefort), and (after Pliny) Heliotropium tricoccum.
| 1578 Lyte Dodoens i. xli. 61 With the seede of the smal Tornesoll..they die and stayne old linnen cloutes and ragges into a purple colour,..wherewithall in this countrey men vse to colour gellies, wynes, fine Confections, and Comfittes. 1688 R. Holme Armoury ii. 91/1 Turnsole, at the leaves comes forth three berries..which have within them a juice, or moisture of a purple colour of which that Turn-sole is made; sold by the Drugists. 1728 Chambers Cycl., Tornesol, Tournesol, or Turnsol, called also Heliotrope, and Sunflower, and by the Botanists Ricinoides. Ibid., The tournsol being no Plant of their [i.e. Dutch] Growth. 1756 C. Lucas Ess. Waters I. 21 Blews obtained from..archil, tournsol, &c. have their colors exalted or preserved by alcalies. |
b. The plant Heliotropium europæum, the great tornesol of Lyte's Herbal; sometimes used by modern botanists as a name for the genus Heliotropium.
| 1578 Lyte Dodoens i. xli. 60 The great Tornesol hath straight round stalkes, couered with a white hearie cotton... The floures be white, at the toppe of the stalke, growing thicke togither in rewes. 1603 B. Jonson Jas. I's Entertainm. Wks. (Rtldg.) 528/2 Agrypnia, or Vigilance, in yellow,..her chaplet of Heliotropium, or turnsole. 1707 Curios. in Husb. & Gard. 142 The Famous Plant, call'd Heliotrope, Turn-Sole, or Sun-Flower. 1731 Miller Gard. Dict. s.v. Heliotropium, The great Turnsole of Dioscorides. Ibid., Blue American Turnsole, with Clary Leaves. a 1832 Bentham Deontol. i. (1834) I. 20 Let the moralist regard the great Deontological law, as steadily as the Turnsole looks upon the sun. 1866 Treas. Bot. 576/2 The Heliotrope or Turnsole, is a large genus of Ehretiaceæ... They are herbs or undershrubs found chiefly in tropical and subtropical regions, but a few species reach Europe, and one, H[eliotropium] europæum, is distributed over..southern and central Europe. 1887 C. A. Moloney Forestry W. Afr. 388 Indian Turnsole (Heliotropium indicum, L.).—Small annual. |
c. Formerly applied to the Sunflower; also to the Sun-spurge or Wartwort, Euphorbia helioscopia.
| 1725 Family Dict. s.v. Sunflower, It's named Turn-Sol by the Italians and French. Ibid., Between which [trees], at three Foot distance one from the other, our Turn-Sols may be planted. 1804 Malkin Scen. etc. S. Wales 606 Turnsoles,..though beautiful, are never planted on graves, because they are not sweet-scented. 1863–79 Prior Pop. Names Brit. Plants, Turnsole or Tornsole, a name erroneously given in some old works to the wartwort. |
3. attrib., as turnsole paper, turnsole rag, turnsole tincture.
| 1733 Shaw Chem. Lect. xi. (1755) 210 We put four Ounces of what is commonly called Turnsol Rags into an earthen Vessel. 1753 Chambers' Cycl. Supp. s.v. Turnesol, The plant that afforded the Turnesol colour. Ibid., The true Turnesol plant here described. 1797 Pearson in Phil. Trans. LXXXVIII. 35 It reddened turnsole paper and tincture. 1836 J. M. Gully Magendie's Formul. (ed. 2) 191 The solution in question reddened turnsol paper. |