Yes, I know, it’s the plural form of Sun, but the word Sun likely predates our understanding that stars and our Sun are the same thing.
I get “stars”, but where did “suns” come from?
Yes, I know, it’s the plural form of Sun, but the word Sun likely predates our understanding that stars and our Sun are the same thing.
I get “stars”, but where did “suns” come from?
My take is that the word “suns” would imply someone else’s Sun in various systems. I don’t think it would be correct to call a star a sun if it didn’t have planets and occupants (past or future).
Since “the” is needed, “the Sun” is more of a generic placeholder, whereas Sol is its actual name in English. So you could be on a different planet somewhere and refer to its star as the Sun (implied of this system), or its name.
It’s also quite possible “suns” has been used in the past for all stars, this is just my take given how the words tend to be used by us.
Yeah, I think like this too. Considering systems can have multiple stars which have planets with varying orbital planes because of this.
Imagine the Solar System has some small red dwarf called Sol B out past Saturn. Neptune and Uranus orbit it as the star orbits Sol. Then waaay out further is Sol C, which orbits Sol too, but it’s alone and not at all dense.
Sol, Sol B, Sol C are all stars in the Solar System. Sol and Sol B are suns, Sol C is not.
While that does follow modern naming convention for multiple star systems, the primary star is denoted with an A. Since we already call it Sol, we’d probably make an exception in this case and come up with a stellar name for the other stars found rather than use the B. But your point stands, a star without a planet doesn’t seem to be a “sun”.