sun worshipper

plural sun worshippers · alternative sun worshiper · alternative sun-worshiper · alternative sun-worshipper

1. literalOne who reveres the Sun as a deity.

   Here Christian, or Jew, Sun-worshipper or Pagan implore their several gods unmolested.

   1899, Robert Barr, The Ambassador's Pigeons

   2 more examples

   He had fallen into the hands of descendants of the ancient sun worshippers. His seeming rescue by a votaress of the high priestess of the sun had been but a part of the mimicry of their heathen ceremony—the sun looking down upon him through the opening at the top of the court had claimed him as his own, and the priestess had come from the inner temple to save him from the polluting hands of worldlings—to save him as a human offering to their flaming deity.

   1913, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Return of Tarzan, New York: Ballantine Books, published 1963, page 167

   Moses warns his followers against the allure of sun- and star-worship; and Ezekiel mentions seeing, in a vision, twenty-five men of Judah worshipping the sun. Indeed, so powerful was the incentive to worship the sun, and so great was its rivalry to the worship of Jehovah, that it was found necessary to take the most drastic measures towards its suppression. Sun-worshippers were threatened with death by stoning.

   1941, George Ryley Scott, Phallic Worship: A History of Sex and Sex Rites in Relation to the Religions of All Races from Antiquity to the Present Day, London: T. Werner Laurie, page 21

2. idiomaticA person who enjoys exposure to sunlight; an avid sunbather.

   "The light hurts you?" she said, for the sun was coming into the room. "Change places with me, I am a sun worshipper."

   1901, Samuel Butler, chapter 21, in Erewhon Revisited

   2 more examples

   A bikini . . . tends to slip and slide a bit in the surf. But for a die-hard sun worshipper, a two-piece suit is the next best thing to nothing at all.

   1981 January 11, “Stunning for Sunning”, in New York Times, retrieved 25 May 2015

   Previous research by Rees has confirmed what sun worshippers already knew: that the upper back is much more likely to tan than the legs.

   2010 August 3, Denis Campbell, “Bottoms bring up the rear in suntan time trials”, in Guardian, UK, retrieved 25 May 2015