American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A bright spot sometimes appearing on either side of the sun, often on a luminous ring or halo.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. An intensification of a circular space in a solar halo, generally in prismatic colors, sometimes dazzlingly bright. The phenomenon, on account of its rough resemblance to the sun itself, is popularly called a mock sun. Two or more parhelia are seen at the same time; and variously arranged white circles, arcs, and bands intersect the halo, or lie tangent to it at the same points. Halos are produced by the refraction of rays through suspended ice-crystals which tend to fall in one or more special positions, and parhelia are due to the excess of crystals so situated. When the sun is near the horizon and the ice-prisms in a vertical position largely preponderate, parhelia are formed on the halo both to the right and left of the sun, and at the same level. As the sun rises, the parhelia gradually separate outward from the halo. If there is an excess of hexagonal prisms with their axes horizontal, and if the axes of the prisms are perpendicular to the line joining the sun and the observer, parhelia will be produced which will be situated on the halo above and below the sun.
- n. A bright spot in the sky due to the refraction of the sun’s image by ice crystals.
- n. a reflection or image
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A mock sun appearing in the form of bright light, sometimes near the sun, and tinged with colors like the rainbow, and sometimes opposite to the sun. The latter is usually called an
anthelion. Often several mock suns appear at the same time. Cf. paraselene.
- n. a bright spot on the parhelic circle; caused by diffraction by ice crystals
- From Latin parelion, from Ancient Greek παρήλιον, from παρά + ἥλιος ("sun"). (Wiktionary)
- Latin parēlion, from Greek : para-, beside; see para-1 + hēlios, sun; see sāwel- in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
“Ren Junchuan/Xinhua via Zuma Press SUN'S EDGES: A bright ring or 'halo' around the sun, called parhelion, was seen in Mongolia Tuesday.”
“The Nibiru explanations on the reacent Photos are Sun dog A sun dog or sundog (scientific name parhelion, plural parhelia, for "beside the sun".”
“At 5 a.m. a beautiful parhelion formed around the sun.”
“This vision, which in all probability was only a parhelion, exaggerated by”
“I do not always know him in these cases as my own parhelion.”
“If you look at a picture of a parhelion by Wilson not only can you be sure that the mock suns, circles and shafts appeared in the sky as they are shown on paper, but you can also rest assured that the number of degrees between, say, the sun and the outer ring of light were in fact such as he has represented them.”
“During the afternoon, the sun occasionally gleamed through a tract of cirro-stratus cloud and there was a very fine parhelion: signs of an approaching blizzard.”
“We forget that the power which sets the parhelion flaming in the sunset, and calls the straying comet back from the bounds of the dark, also puts the orange underwing to sleep in her chrysalis cradle, while the flower she loves best is prepared for her.”
“The weather became fairly thick soon after noon, and at the end of the afternoon there was considerable drift with a mist caused by ice crystals and parhelion.”
“They stood a little while silently gazing at the beautiful parhelion; Charlotte, her friend, and Anne clustered together, Emily a little higher, standing on a heathery knoll.”
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