Objects with no name, like "the Sun"

Question

This morning I was pondering the things in the English language which have not been given a name, such as 'the Sun' or 'the Moon'. These do not seem to fall into the same category as 'the ground' or 'the sky' which seem a lot more spatially vague. In cases where an implicit place is referred to, for example: 'we went to the ocean', the thing also has a specific name.

Is there a reason why English has not given a name to the Sun or Moon? Other languages seem to have gone to the effort to name the big fiery thing in the sky, for example: Sol, Helios, Güneş.

I think that 'the sun' counts as a name. There's only one; we refer to other giant, bright balls of hydrogen as 'stars'. In fact, you capitalize Sun if you're referring to it in an astronomical context. — Nathan G., Feb 06 '11 at 20:12
@Nathan - I agree, there are lots of stars, but we gave this one a name, the Sun. There are also lots of moons around lots of planets, but this is the Moon. — ukayer, Feb 06 '11 at 20:17
@Nathan - yes... but English predates this sort of astronomical view. — dave, Feb 06 '11 at 20:34
@Nathan your comment is the correct answer. I wish there were a way to convert comments to answers, because that is what I would do. — nohat, Feb 06 '11 at 21:27
The sun has many names, including Sol Invictus and Helios. The moon also has many names. — oosterwal, Mar 22 '11 at 14:31
Sigh. Doesn't anyone at EL&U read sci-fi? In which it's standard practice to call our sun Sol or at least something else other than the Sun. Mind you, now I think on it, I don't know any special proper noun in sci-fi distinguishing our moon from Ganymede, Phoebe, Io, etc. — FumbleFingers, Jul 09 '11 at 02:53
@FumbleFingers Earth's moon is most often called Luna in sci-fi. — Lawton, Jun 15 '12 at 00:18
Are there other examples of this pattern besides "sun" and "moon"? — New Alexandria, Oct 03 '12 at 02:48
@RichardGadsden as stated below, "SF writers also tend to use "Terra" for Earth for a similar reason, although admittedly people would be less likely to call their non-Terra planet "Earth", than they are to call their non-Sol star 'the Sun'" — New Alexandria, Jun 30 '14 at 13:37

score 18 · Accepted Answer · answered Feb 06 '11 at 23:20

18

Posted as answer, as requested:

I think that 'the sun' counts as a name. There's only one; we refer to other giant, bright balls of hydrogen as 'stars'. In fact, you capitalize Sun if you're referring to it in an astronomical context

answered Feb 06 '11 at 23:20

Nathan G.

1,005

1

Not quite: 'the Sun' is a name, but future colonists may refer to the sun of their world (see what I did there?) as 'the Sun' while meaning what we call Alpha Centauri. Similarly, people across the world refer to 'the Civil War'; they don't all refer to the same event, but a distinguisher is only needed if more than one is referred to. – Tim Lymington Jun 11 '11 at 17:21
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For the reasons mentioned by @TimLymington, science fiction frequently uses "Sol" to refer specifically to star that is home to Earth. Technically, that name could also be applied by anybody to their own star too for similar reasons, but not in (current) English, so that is sufficent to differentiate. SF writers also tend to use "Terra" for Earth for a similar reason, although admittedly people would be less likely to call their non-Terra planet "Earth", than they are to call their non-Sol star "the Sun". – Kevin Cathcart Sep 21 '11 at 14:23
Just because there's more than one person in the Universe named "John Smith" does not mean that "John Smith" is not a name. – Hot Licks Jul 29 '15 at 21:01

score 15 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 06 '11 at 21:41

15

Your question contains an implicit assumption which is unfounded: the words sol in Latin, helios in Greek, and güneş simply mean "sun". They are names for the sun in exactly the same way that the English word is the name for the sun. If you doubt this, consider the following: is there some generic word for "sun" in either Latin or Greek that contrasts with the proper names sol/helios? (I don't know Turkish, so I won't comment on güneş.)

In other words, we do have names for the big bright light that appears during the day, and the smaller, waxing and waning disk that appears at night. Those names are "sun" and "moon". Other burning balls of hydrogen are called "stars", and satellites orbiting other planets may be "moons", but they're not the moon.

(HT: Nathan, who gave the correct answer in a comment.)

answered Feb 06 '11 at 21:41

JSBձոգչ

54,843

Fair point. I do not know Latin or Greek so appreciate the feedback of those that do. I do know some Turkish but, since it lacks articles, it is hard to make a direct comparison with English. – dave Feb 06 '11 at 23:19
Continuing from above comment...
I found it interesting if that if you were typing into your car's GPS, very few addresses start with 'The': The Sun, The moon, The Milky Way. It is probably significant that these all culturally unique and important.
– dave Feb 06 '11 at 23:26
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@dave: I just wonder what you find lacking in the names "the sun" and "the moon". What about them is not name-like? There isn't only one ocean; you can say "the ocean" if a mutually understood reference has been established in discourse (just like any common noun), but that is not like "the sun". Since there are many oceans, you can also say "I'd like to live near an ocean". You can't say "I'd like to live in a place where a sun shines every day". – Kosmonaut Feb 06 '11 at 23:33
I agree that 'the sun' is a name. It's a nice name, short and to the point. I just found it interesting that something of such importance wouldn't be given a flashier name. To me, it's like calling your child 'the child' - there are lots of other children out there but context indicates that you are referring to your own child. – dave Feb 06 '11 at 23:50
@dave: Are the names sol, helios, etc. inherently flashier? – Kosmonaut Feb 07 '11 at 04:50
@Kosmonaut: Inherently, no. Subjectively and personally: yep. I have two offspring. I could have named them 'the boy' and 'the girl'. In the same way, Mars could have been named 'the Red Dot'. Many people believe in a monotheism, yet do not refer to 'the Allah'.
I hope I don't sound argumentative. I am happy to accept these are perfectly valid names. I am also happy to accept the question may have more to do with culture and history than linguistics, though the extent to which they are inter-related is of interest to be.
– dave Feb 07 '11 at 05:29
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@dave: Naming your kid "the boy" would be different in two major ways. One, people never have "the" in front of their name, and two, there are billions of boys and girls, so naming your child "the boy" would be extremely impersonal. But there is only one sun and one moon — and before space exploration, stars weren't even thought to be the same thing. There are thousands of proper names with "the" at the beginning, like "The United States", "The Beatles", "The Shining", etc. I really think you see the other languages' words as more "name-like" because they aren't your first language. – Kosmonaut Feb 07 '11 at 14:48
Well, there was "The Dude" from "The Big Lebowski" :-) – dave Feb 07 '11 at 14:54
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@dave: "Allah" actually is "Al-lah" meaning literally "The god"; thus implicitly the only one, just like "The sun" implies (even if we now know it's jus one of many stars), that's why a Muslim would not say "The Allah", that would be just as silly as saying "the The Beatles".. – Stein G. Strindhaug Mar 22 '11 at 10:16
@Kosmonaut: I have four siblings, the youngest of whom was invariably called Baby by the rest of us until she was 5 years old and due to start school. It was only then that we realised we'd have to change the nomenclature. The opposite of when humanity first realised the Sun is just another star, in that we didn't really even know what a "star" was until then, which is why we didn't just call ours Star. – FumbleFingers Jul 09 '11 at 03:00

score 7 · Answer 3 · edited Apr 26 '13 at 13:59

"The sun" is its name in English, just like "Sola"/"Solen" (definite form of "sol") is its name in Norwegian. While "sun" may refer to the hydrogen fusion ball in the sky or its light, just like "sol" does in Norwegian. A name with "the" or a definite article doesn't make it less a name. If a name for something is in a definite form (i.e. "the" in english), it usually implies it's the only one.

For instance "united states" could be any union of states, while "The United States" is almost definitely a short form of "The United States of America" aka. "USA".

score -3 · Answer 4 · answered Jul 29 '15 at 12:23

-3

All stars are suns, and all suns are stars, but there is only one Sol, and there is only one Solar System. Other planetary systems are known by their own astronomical nomenclature. Just as there are plenty of moons in the Solar System, but only one Luna (Earth's moon). Right? Right.

answered Jul 29 '15 at 12:23

Mitchell

1

Actually, there are many solar systems, but only one Solar System, just as there is only one Sun and only one Moon. – Hot Licks Jul 29 '15 at 12:29
Are all stars suns? I would only consider a star to be a "sun" from the perspective of an orbiting object. If there is no such object, the star would not be a sun. And I don't think all stars have planets or equivalent satellites. As for "moon," I've heard several definitions; while it's common to refer to the "moons of Jupiter," some people seem to prefer to reserve the term "moon" for Luna and use the term "satellite" for other bodies (possibly modified by the adjective "natural"). – herisson Jul 30 '15 at 00:27

Objects with no name, like "the Sun"

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